
Class_A- /T<S, 
Book • ' 

COBKIGHT DEi 



posrr. 



TO 

JOHN BACH. 

AND 

PHILIP DURYEE McMASTER 



A SCHOOL HISTORY 






UNITED STATES 



BY 



JOHN BACH McMASTER 

w 

PROFESSOR OB^ AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY 
OF PENNSYLVANIA 



^xJ^O^c 



NEW YORK :• CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 



/W/77 



Copyright, 189T, 1912, by 
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. 



McM. HIST. 

E-P 64 



f CI.A320856 



PREFACE 

It has long been the custom to begin the history of our 
country with the discovery of the New World by Columbus. 
To some extent this is both wise and necessary ; but in 
following it in this instance the attempt has been made to 
treat the colonial period as the childhood of the United 
States; to have it bear the same relation to our later career 
that the account of the youth of a great man should bear to 
that of his maturer years, and to confine it to the narration 
of such events as are really necessary to a correct understand- 
ing of what has happened since 1776. 

The story, therefore, has been restricted to the discoveries, 
explorations, and settlements within the United States by the 
English, French, Spaniards, and Dutch; to the expulsion of 
the French by the English ; to the planting of the thirteen 
colonies on the Atlantic seaboard ; to the origin and progress 
of the quarrel which ended with the rise of thirteen sovereign 
free and independent states, and to the growth of such politi- 
cal institutions as began in colonial times. This period once 
passed, the long struggle for a government followed till our 
present Constitution — one of the most remarkable political 
instruments ever framed by man — was adopted, and a nation 
founded. 

5 



6 PREFACE 

Scarcely was this accomplished when the French Revolution 
and the rise of Napoleon involved us in a struggle, first for 
our neutral rights, and then for our commercial independence, 
and finally in a second war with Great Britain. During this 
period of nearly five and twenty years, commerce and agricul- 
ture flourished exceedingly, but our internal resources were 
little developed. With the peace of 1815, however, the era 
of industrial development commences, and this has been 
treated with great — though it is believed not too great — 
fullness of detail; for, beyond all question, tlie event of the 
world's history during the nineteenth century is the growth 
of the United States. Nothing like it has ever before taken 
place. 

To have loaded down the book with extended bibliographies 

would have been an easy matter, but quite unnecessary. The 

teacher will find in Channing and Hart's Guide to the Study of 

American History the best digested and arranged bibliography 

of the subject yet published, and cannot afford to be without 

it. If the student has time and disposition to read one half 

of the reference books cited in the footnotes of this history, 

he is most fortunate. 

JOHN BACH McM ASTER. 

University of Pennsylvania. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

CHAPTEE 

I. Europe finds America 9 

II. The Spaniards in the United States .... 19 

III. English, Dutch, and Swedes on the Seaboard . 26 

IV. The Planting of New England 40 

V. The Middle and Southern Colonies .... 54 

VI. The French in the Mississippi Valley ... 60 

VII. The Indians ^^ 

VIII. The Struggle for New France and Louisiana . 76 

IX. Life in the Colonies in 1763 93 

X. "Liberty, Property, and No Stamps" . . .110 

XI. The Struggle for Independence 126 

XII. Under the Articles of Confederation . . 155 

XIII. Making the Constitution 165 

XIV. Our Country in 1790 175 

XV. The Rise of Parties 1^7 

XVI. The Struggle for Neutrality 206 

XVII. Struggle FOR "Free Trade AND Sailors' Rights" 224 

XVIII. The War for Commercial Independence . . .233 

XIX. Progress of our Country between 1790 and 1815 . 241 

XX. Settlement of our Boundaries 209 

XXI. The Rising West 2()6 

XXII. The Highways of Trade and Commerce . . . 279 

XXIII. Politics from 1824 to 1845 .294 

XXIV. Expansion of the Slave Area '^20 

XXV. The Territories become Slave Sou 346 

XXVI. Progress in the United States between 1840 and 18(50 3()5 

XXVII. War for the Union, 1861-1805 '^"^ 

XXVIII. War along the Coast and on thk Sea . . • 410 
XXIX. The Cost of the War ... o ... 419 

7 



8 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

XXX. Reconstruction of the South . • . . . 425 

XXXI. The New West (1860-1870) 433 

XXXII. Politics from 1868 to 1880 437 

XXXIII. Growth of the Northwest ...... 454 

XXXIV. Mechanical and Industrial Progress . . . 459 
XXXV. Politics since 1880 462 

APPENDIX 

Declaration of Independence . . . . , . , 1 

Constitution of the United States 5 

State Constitutions ......... 17 

Index ............ 19 

LIST OF IMPORTANT MAPS 



Discovery on the East Coast 

OF America ... 15 
European Claims and Ex- 
plorations, 1650 . . 61 
French Claims, etc., in 1700 63 
British Colonies, 1733 74, 75 
European Possessions, 1763 . 90 
The British Colonies in 1764 111 
British Colonies, 1776 . 124, 125 
Results of the War for In- 
dependence . . . 151 
The United States, 1783, 156, 157 
The United States, 1789 . 175 
Distribution of Population, 

1790 177 

Slave and Free Soil in 1790 186 

The United States, 1801 . 244 

The United States, 1810 . 247 

North America after 1824 . 263 
Distribution of Population, 

1820 269 

Freedom and Slavery in 

1820 276 



PAGE 

The United States, 1826, 298, 299 
Territory claimed by Texas 

IN 1845 . . . .321 

The Oregon Country . . 325 
Routes of the Early Ex- 
plorers .... 330 
Territory ceded by Mexico, 

1848 and 1853 . . .333 
Results of the Compromise 

OF 1850 . . . .342 
The United States in 1851, 

348, 349 
Expansion of Slave Soil, 

1790-1860 . . ; . 357 
Distribution of Population, 

1850 367 

The United States, 1861, 

384, 385 
War for the Union . 400, 401 
Industrial and Railroad 

Map of the United States 

452, 453 



A SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE 
UNITED STATES 



aXXc 



DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 

CHAPTER I 

EUROPE FINDS AMERICA 

1. Nations that have owned our Soil. — Before the United 
States became a nation, six European powers owned, or claimed 
to own, various portions of the territory now contained within 
its boundary. England claimed the Atlantic coast from Maine 
to Florida. Spain once held Florida, Texas, California, and 
all the territory south and west of Colorado. France in days 
gone by ruled the Mississippi valley. Holland once owned 
New Jersey, Delaware, and the valley of the Hudson in New 
York, and claimed as far eastward as the Connecticut E/iver. 
The Swedes had settlements on the Delaware. Alaska was a 
Russian possession. 

Before attempting to narrate the history of our country, 
it is necessary, therefore, to tell 

1. How European nations came into possession of parts of it. 

2. How these parts passed from them to us. 

3. What effect the ownership of parts of our country by Euro- 

peans had on our history and institutions before 1776. 

2. European Trade with the East ; the Old Routes. — For two 

hundred years before North and South America were known 

9 



10 



DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 



to exist, a splendid trade had been going on between Europe 
and tlie East Indies. Ships loaded with metals, woods, and 
pitch went from European seaports to Alexandria and Con- 
stantinople, and brought back silks and cashmeres, muslins, 
dyewoods, spices, perfumes, ivory, precious stones, and pearls. 
This trade in course of time had come to be controlled by the 
two Italian cities of Venice and Genoa. The merchants of 

Genoa sent their 
ships to Constan- 
tinople and the 
ports of the Black 
Sea, where they 
took on board the 
rich fabrics and 
spices which by 
boats and by car- 
avans had come 
up the valley of 
the Euphrates and 
the Tigris from the 
Persian Gulf. The 
men of Venice, on 
the other hand, 
sent their vessels 
to Alexandria, and 
carried on their trade with the East through the Eed Sea. 

3. New Routes wanted. — Splendid as this trade was, how- 
ever, it was doomed to destruction. Slowly, but surely, the 
Turks thrust themselves across the caravan routes, cutting off 
one by one the great feeders of the Oriental trade, till, with 
the capture of Constantinoi^le in 1453, they destroyed the 
commercial career of Genoa. As their power was spreading 
rapidly over Syria and toward Egypt, the prosperity of Venice, 
in turn, was threatened. The day seemed near when all trade 
between the Indies and Europe would be ended, and men began 
to ask if it were not possible to find an ocean route to Asia. 




Routes to India 



EUROPE FINDS AMERICA 



11 



Now, it happened that just at this time the Portuguese were 
hard at work on the discovery of such a route, and were slowly 
pushing their way down the western coast of Africa. But as 
league after league of that coast was discovered, it was thought 
that the route to India by way of Africa was too long for the 
purposes of commerce.^ Then came the question. Is there not 
a shorter route ? and this Columbus tried to answer. 

4. Columbus seeks the East and finds America.^ — Columbus 
was a native of Genoa, in Italy. He began a seafaring life at 
fourteen, and in the intervals between his voyages made maps 
and globes. As Portugal was then the center of nautical 
enterprise, he wandered there about 1470, and probably went 
on one or two voyages down the coast of Africa. In 1473 he 
married a Portuguese woman. Her father had been one of 
the King of Portugal's famous navi- 
gators, and had left behind him at his 
death a quantity of charts and notes ; 
and it was while Columbus was studying 
them that the idea of seeking the Indies 
by sailing due westward seems to have 
first started in his mind. But many a 
year went by, and many a hardship had 
to be borne, and many an insult patiently 
endured in poverty and distress, before 
the Friday morning in August, 1492, 
when his three caravels, the Santa Maria 
(sahn'-tah mah-ree'-ah), the Pinta (peen'- 
tah), and the Nina (neen'-yah), sailed from the port of Palos 
(pah'-los), in Spain. 

His course led first to the Canary Islands, where he turned 

1 Read the account of Portuguese exploration in search of a way to 
India, in Fiske's Discovery of America^ Vol. I., pp. 274-3.34. 

2 There is reason to believe that about the year 1000 a.d. the northeast 
coast of America was discovered by a Norse voyager named Leif Ericsson. 
The records are very meager; but the discovery of our country by such a 
people is possible and not improbable. For an account of the pre-Colum- 
bian discoveries see Fiske's Discovery of America^ Vol. I., pp. 148-255. 




Santa Maria 



12 



DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 



and went directly westward. The earth was not then gener- 
ally believed to be round. Men supposed it to be flat, and the 
only parts of it known to Europeans were Iceland^ the British 
Isles, the continent of Europe, a small j)art of Asia, and a 
strip along the coast of the northern part of Africa. The 
ocean on which Columbus was now embarked, and which in 
our time is crossed in less than a week, was then utterly 
unknown, and was well named " The Sea of Darkness." Little 
wonder, then, that as the shores of the last of the Canaries 
sank out of sight on the 9th of September, many of the sailors 
wept, wailed, and loudly bemoaned their cruel fate. After sail- 
ing for what seemed a very long time, they saw signs of land. 
But when no land appeared, their hopes gave way to fear, and 
they rose against Columbus in order to force him to return. 

But he calmed their fears, explained the sights they could 
not understand, hid from them the true distance sailed, and 

kept steadily on westward 
till October 7, when a 
flock of land birds were 
seen flying to the south- 
west. Pinzon (peen- 
thon'), who commanded 
one of the vessels, begged 
Columbus to follow the 
birds, as they seemed to 
be going toward land. 
Had the little fleet kept 
on its way, it would have 
brought up on the coast 
of Florida. But Colum- 
bus yielded to Pinzon. The ships were headed southwest- 
ward, and about ten o'clock on the night of October 11, 
Columbus saw a light moving in the distance. It was made 
by the inhabitants going from hut to hut on a neighboring 
coast. At dawn the shore itself was seen by a sailor, and 
Columbus, followed by many of his men, hastened to the 




Nina 



EUROPE FINDS AMERICA 



13 



beacli, where, October 12, 1492, lie raised a huge cross, and 
took possession of the country in the name of Ferdinand and 
Isabella, King and Queen of Spain, who had supplied him 
with caravels and men.^ He had landed on one of a group of 
islands which we call the Bahamas. ^ 

During ten days he sailed among these islands. Then, 
turning southward, he coasted along Cuba to the eastern end, 
and so to Haiti, which he named 
Hispaniola, or Little Spain. There 
the /Santa Maria was wrecked. 
The Pirita had by this time de- 
serted him, and, as the JSlina 
could not carry all the men, forty 
were left at Hispaniola, to found 
the first colony of Europeans in 
the New World. Giving the men 
food enough to last a year, Colum- 
bus set sail for Spain on the 3d of 
January, 1493, and on March 15 
was safe at Palos. 

Of the greatness of his discov- 
ery, Columbus had not the faintest 

■ idea. That he had found a new world ; that a continent was 
blocking his way to the East, never entered his mind. He 
supposed he had landed on some islands off the east coast of 
Asia, and as that coast -was called the Indies, and as the 
: islands were reached by sailing westward, they came to be 
called the West Indies, and their inhabitants Indians; and 
the native races of the New World have ever since been called 




Coat of arms of Columbus 



1 Columbus called the new land San Salvador (sahn sahl-vah-dor', 
Holy Savior), because October 12, the day on which it was discovered, 
was so named in the Spanish calendar. 

2 Three islands of this group, Cat, Turks, and Watlings, have rival 
claims as the landing place of Columbus. At present, Watlings Island 
is believed to, be the one on which he first set foot. Read an account 
of the voyage in Fiske's Discovery of America, Vol. I., pp. 408-442; 
Irving's Life and Voyages of Columbus, Vol. I., Book III. 



14 DISCOVEREKS AND EXPLORERS 

Indians. Although Columbus in after years made three more 
voyages to the New World, he never found out his mistake, 
and died firm in the belief that he' had discovered a direct 
route to Asia.^ 

5. The Atlantic Coast explored. — And now that Columbus 
had shown the way, others were quick to follow. In 1497 
and 1498 came John and Sebastian Cabot (cab'-ot), sailing 
under the flag of England, and exploring our coast from 
Labrador to Cape Cod; and Pinzon and Solis, with Ves- 
pucius^ for pilot, sailing under the flag of Spain along the 
shores of the Gulf of Mexico, around the peninsula of Florida, 
and northward to Chesapeake Bay. Between 1500 and 1502 
two Portuguese navigators named Cortereal (cor-ta-ra-ahl') 
went over much the same ground as the Cabots. Por the 
time being, however, these voyages were fruitless. It was not 
a new world, but China and Japan, the Indian Ocean, and the 
spice islands, that Europe was seeking. When, therefore, in 
1497, Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon, passed around the 
end of Africa, reached India, and came back to Portugal in 
1499 with his ship laden with the silks and spices of the East, 
all explorers turned southward, and for eleven years after 
the visit of the Cortereals no voyages were made to North 
America. 

6. Why the Continent was called America, — But some great 
voyages meantime were made to South America. In 1500 a 
Portuguese fleet of thirteen vessels, commanded by Cabral, 
started from Portugal for the East. In place of following the 

1 Columbus began his second voyage in September, 1493, and discovered 
Jamaica, Porto Rico (por'-to ree'-co) , and the islands of the Caribbean 
Sea. On his third voyage, in 1498, he discovered the island of Trinidad, 
off the coast of Venezuela, and saw South America at the mouth of the 
Orinoco River. During his fourth and last voyage, 1502-1604, he explored 
the shores of Honduras and the Isthmus of Panama in search of a strait 
leading to the Indian Ocean. Of course he did not find it, and, going 
back to Spain, he died poor and broken-hearted on May 20, 1506. 

2 As this man was an Italian, his name was really Amerigo Vespucci 
(ah-ma'-ree-go ves-poot'-chee), but it is usually given in its Latinized 
form, Americus Vespucius (a-mer'-i-cus ves-pu'-she-us). 



THOUGHT TO HT ' 



EASTERN ASIA^^„^V^<,^ 




Strait of MayMan 



^■J/^?' b/^ICELAI'jD 



DISCOVERY 

ON THE EAST COAST OF 

AMERICA 



■^ <i^ S.GEORGIA I. 



16 DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 

usual route and hugging the west coast of Africa, Cabral went 
off so far to the westward that one day in April, 1500, he was 
amazed to see land. It proved to be what is now Brazil, and 
after sailing along a little way he sent one of his vessels home 
to Portugal with the news. 

He did this because six years before, in June, 1494, Spain 
and Portugal made a treaty and agreed that a meridian should 
be drawn 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands and be 
known as "The Line of Demarcation." All heathen lands 
discovered, no matter by whom, to the east of this line, were 
to belong to Portugal; all to the west of it were to be the 
property of Spain. Now, as the strange coast seemed to be 
east of the line of demarcation, and therefore the property of 
Portugal, Cabral sent word to the King that he might explore it. 

Accordingly, in May, 1501, the King sent out three ships in 
charge of Americus Vespucius. Vespucius sighted the coast 
somewhere about Cape St. Koque, and, finding that it Avas east 
of the line of demarcation, explored it southward as far as the 
mouth of the river La Plata. As he was then west of the line, 
and off a coast which belonged to Spain, he turned and sailed 
southeastward till he struck the island of South Georgia, 
where the Antarctic cold and the fields of floating ice stopped 
him and sent him back to Lisbon. 

The results of this great voyage were many. In the first 
place, it secured Brazil for Portugal. In the second place, it 
changed the geographical ideas of the time. The great length 
of coast line explored proved that the land was not a mere 
island, but that Vespucius had found a new continent in the 
southern hemisphere, — off the coast of Asia, as was then sup- 
posed. This for a time was called the "Fourth Part" of the 
world, — the other three parts being Europe, Asia, and Africa. 
But in 1507 a German professor published a little book on 
geography, in which he suggested that the new part of the 
world discovered by Americus, the part which we call Brazil, 
should be called America. 

As Columbus was not supposed to have discovered a new 



EUROPE FINDS AMERICA 



17 



world, but merely a new route to Asia, this suggestion seemed 
very proper, and soon the word " America " began to appear on 
maps as the name of Brazil. After a wliile it was applied 
to all South America, and finally to North America also, 

7. The Pacific discovered ; the Mexican Gulf Coast explored. — 
A few years after the publication of the little book which 
gave the New World the name of America, a Spaniard named 
Balboa landed on the Isthmus of Panama, crossed it (1513), 
and from the mountains looked down on an endless expanse 
of blue water, which he called the South Sea, because when 
he first saw it he was looking south. 

Meantime another Spaniard, named Ponce de Leon (pon'- 
tha da la-on'), sailed with three ships from Porto Eico, in 
March, 1513, and on the 27th of that month came in sight of 
the mainland. As the 
day was Easter Sun- 
day, which the Span- 
iards call Pascua 
(pas'-coo-ah) Florida, 
he called the country 
Florida. 

Six years later 
(1519) Pineda (pe-na'- 
da) skirted the shores 
of the Gulf from Flor- 
ida to Mexico. 

8. Spaniards sail round the World. — In the same year (1519) 
that Pineda explored the Gulf coast, a Portuguese named 
Magellan (ma-jel'-an) led a Spanish fleet across the Atlantic. 
He coasted along South America to Tierra del Fuego, entered 
the strait which now bears his name, passed well up the west- 
ern coast, and turning westward sailed toward India. He was 
then on the ocean which Balboa had discovered and named 
the South Sea. But Magellan found it so much smoother than 

1 Showing what was then supposed to be the shape and position of the 
newly discovered lands. 

McM. Hist.— 2 




Map of 1515 



18 DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 

the Atlantic tliat he called it the Pacific. Five ships and 2o4 
men left Spain; but only one ship and fifteen men returned 
to Spain by way of India and Cape of Good Hope. Magellan 
himself was among the dead.^ 

9. Importance of Magellan's Voyage. — Of all the voyages 
ever made by man this was the greatest.^ In the first place, 
it proved beyond dispute that the earth is round. In the 
second place, it proved that South America is a great conti- 
nent, and that there is no short southwest passage to India. 

10. Search for a Northwest Passage ; our North Atlantic Coast 
explored. — All eyes, therefore, turned northward ; the quest 
for a northwest passage began, and in that quest the Atlantic 
coast of the United States was examined most thoroughly. 

SUMMARY 

1. Towards the close of the fifteenth century the Turks cut off the old 

route of trade between Asia and Europe. 

2. In attempting to find a new way to Asia, the Portuguese then began 

to explore the west coast of Africa. 

3. When at last they got well down the African coast it was thought 

that such a route was too long. 

4. Columbus (1492) then attempted to find a shorter way to Asia by 

sailing westward across the Atlantic Ocean, and landed on some 
islands which he supposed to be the East Indies. 

5. The explorations of men who followed Columbus proved that a new 

continent had been discovered and that it blocked the way to India. 

6. The attempts to find a southwest passage or a northwest passage 

through our continent led to the exploration of the Atlantic and 
Pacific coasts. 

7. The new world was called America, after the explorer Americus. 

8. The voyage of Magellan proved that the earth is round. 

1 Magellan was killed by the natives of one of the Philippine Islands. 
The captain of the ship which made the voyage was greatly honored. The 
King of Spain ennobled him, and on his coat of arms was a globe repre- 
senting the earth, and on it the motto " You first sailed round me." 

2 By all means read the account of this voyage by Fiske, in his Discov- 
ery of America, Vol. II., pp. 190-211. 



CHAPTER II 

THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES 

11. The Spaniards explore the Southwest. — Now it must 
be noticed that up to 1513 no European had explored the in- 
terior of either Korth or South America. They had merely 
touched the shores. In 1513 the work of exploration began. 
Balboa then crossed the Isthmus of Panama. In 1519 Cortes 
(cor'-tez) landed on the coast of Mexico with a body of men, 
and marched boldly into the heart of the country to the city 
where lived the great Indian chief or king, Montezuma. Cortes 
took the city and made himself master of Mexico. This was 




Map of 1530, Sloane 



1 Notice that the two continents begin to take shape, and that as the 
result of Magellan's voyage is not generally known, North America is 
placed very near to Java. 

19 



20 DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 

most important; for the conquest of Mexico turned the attention 
of the Spaniards from our country for many years, and finally 
led to the exploration of the Southwest. But the first explor- 
ers of Avhat is now the United States came from Cuba in 1528. 

In that year Narvaez (nar-vah'-eth), excited by Pineda's ac- 
counts of the Mississippi Indians and their golden orna- 
ments, set forth with 400 men to conquer the north coast of 
the Gulf of Mexico. At Apalachee Bay he landed, and made 
a raid inland. On returning to the shore, he missed his ships, 
and after traveling westward on foot for a month, built five 
rude vessels, and once more put to sea. For six weeks the 
little fleet hugged the shore, till it came to the mouth of the 
Mississippi, where two of the boats were upset and Narvaez 
was drowned. The rest reached the coast of Texas in safety. 
But famine and the tomahawk soon reduced the number of 
the survivors to four. These were captured by bands of wan- 
dering Indians, were carried over eastern Texas and western 
Louisiana, till, after many strange adventures and vicissitudes, 
they met beyond the Sabine Biver.^ Protected by the fame 
they had won for sorcery, and led by one Cabeza de Vaca, they 
now wandered westward to the Eio Grande ^ (ree'-o grahn'-da) 
and on by Chihuahua (chee-wah'-wah) and Sonora to the Gulf 
of California, and by this to Culiacan, a town near the west 
coast of Mexico, which they reached in 1536. They had 
crossed the continent. 

12. *' The Seven Cities of Cibola. ' ' — The story these men told 
of the strange country through which they had passed, aroused 
a strong desire in the Spaniards to explore it, for somewhere 
in tliat direction they believed were the Seven Cities. Accord- 
ing to an ancient legend, when the Arabs invaded the Spanish 
peninsula, a bishop of Lisbon with many followers fled to a 
group of islands in the Sea of Darkness, and on them founded 
seven cities. As one of the Indian tribes had preserved a story 
of Seven Caves in which their ancestors had once lived, the 

1 Now the western boundary of Louisiana. 

2 Rio Grande del Norte— Great River of the North. 



THE SPANIATIDS IN THE UNITED STATES 



21 



credulous and romantic Spaniards easily confounded tlie two 
legends. Firmly believing that the seven cities must exist 
in the north country traversed by Vaca, Mendoza, the Spanish 
governor of Mexico, selected Fray Marcos, a monk of great 
ability, and sent him forth with a few followers to search for 
them. Directed by the Indians through whose villages he 
passed, he came at last in sight of the seven Zuni (zoo'-nyee) 
pueblos (pweb'-loz) of New Mexico, all of which were inhab- 




The kind of cities found by Marcos and Coronado in the Rio Grande valley 

ited in his time. But he came no nearer than just within 
sight of them. For one of the party, who went on in advance, 
having been killed by the Zuni, Fray Marcos hurried back to 
Culiacan. Understanding the name of the city he had seen 
to be Cibola (see'-bo-la), he called the pueblos the "Seven 
Cities of Cibola," and against them the next year (1540) Coro- 
nado marched with 1100 men. Finding the pueblos were not 
the rich cities for which he sought, Coronado pushed on east- 



22 



DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 




ward, and for two 
years wandered to 
and fro over the 
plains and mountains 
of the West, cross- 
ing the state of Kan- 
sas twice. ^ 

13. The Spaniards 
on the Mississippi. — 
In 1537 De Soto was 
appointed governor 
of Cuba, with in- 
structions to conquer 
and hold all the 
country discovered by Narvaez. On this mission he set out 
in May, 1539, and landed at Tampa Bay, on the west coast 
of our state of Florida. He wandered over the swamps and 
marshes, the moss-grown jungles, and the forests of the Gulf 
states, and spent the winter of 1541 near the Yazoo River. 
Crossing the Mississippi in the spring of 1542 at the Chicka- 
saw Bluffs, he wandered about eastern Arkansas, till he died 
of fever, and was buried in the Mississippi. His followers 
then built rude boats, floated down the river to the Gulf, 
steered along the coast of Texas, and in September, 1543, 
reached Tampico, in Mexico. 

More than half a century had now gone by since the first 
voyage of Columbus. Yet not a settlement, great or small, 
; had been established by Spain within our boundary. Between 
1546 and 1561 missionaries twice attempted to found missions 
and convert the Indians in Florida, and twice were driven 
away. In 1582 others entered the valleys of the Gila and the 
Rio Grande, took possession of the pueblos, established mis- 
sions, preached the Gospel to the Indians, and brought them 

1 Do not fail to read a dehghtful Httle book called The Spanish 
Pioneers, by Charles F. Lummis. In it the story of these great journeys 
is told on pp. 77-88, 101-143. 



THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES 



23 



under the dominion of Spain. But when Santa Fe (sahn'-tah 
fa') was founded, in 1582, the only colony of Spain in the 
United States, besides the missions in Arizona and New 
Mexico, was St. Augustine in Florida. 







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WSjBBiKiSs,^ 




^^B 




^nMni iirff iii'"ii 1 


11^555 




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3 ^ 











A Spanish mission 

14. St. Augustine. — St. Augustine was founded by the 
Spaniards in order to keep out the French, who made two 
attempts to occupy the south Atlantic coast. The first was 
that of John Eibault (ree-bo'). He led a colony of French- 
men, in 1562, to what is now South Carolina, built a small 
fort on a spot which he called Port Eoyal, and left it in charge 
of thirty men while he went back to France for more colo- 
nists. The men were a shiftless set, depended on the Indians 
till the Indians would feed them no longer, and when famine 
set in, they mutinied, slew their commander, built a crazy 
ship and went to sea, where an English vessel found them in 
a starving condition, and took them to London. 

In 1564 a second party, under Laudonniere (lo-do-ne-ar'), 
landed at the St. Johns Eiver in Florida, and built a fort 



24 



DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS 



called Fort Caroline in honor of Charles IX. of Trance. But 
the King of Spain, hearing that the French were trespass- 
ing, sent an expedition under Menendez (ma-nen'-deth), who 
founded St. Augustine in 1565. There Bibault, who had re- 
turned and joined Laudonniere, attempted to attack the Span- 
iards. But a hurricane 
scattered his ships, and 
while it was still raging, 
Menendez fell suddenly 
on Fort Caroline and mas- 
sacred men, women, and 
children. A few days 
later, falling in with Ei- 
bault and his men, who 
had been driven ashore 
south of St. Augustine, 
Menendez massacred 150 
more.^ For this foul 
deed a Frenchman named 
Gourgues (goorg) exacted 
a fearful penalty. With 
three small ships and 
200 men, he sailed to 



ft 



Gateway at St. Augustine 2 



the St. Johns Eiver, took and destroyed the fort which the 
Spaniards had built on the site of Fort Caroline, and put to 
death every human being within it. 



SUMMARY 

1. From 1492 to 1613 the Europeans who came to America explored the 

coasts of North and South America, but did not go inland. 

2. In 1513 exploration of the interior of the two continents began. Bal- 

boa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, 1513, and Cortes conquered 
Mexico, 1519-21. 

1 The story of the French in Florida is finely told in Parkman's 
Pioneers of France in the New World; also J. Sparks's Life of Bibault; 
Baird's Huguenot Emigration. 

2 Remaining from the Spanish occupation of Florida. 



THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES 



25 



4. 



6. 



In 1528 Narvaez made the first serious attempt to enter the Mississippi 
valley. He died, and some of his followers, under Cabeza de Vaca, 
crossed the continent. 

When the Spanish governor of Mexico heard their story, he sent Fray 
Marcos to find the "Seven Cities of Cibola" ; and began the ex- 
ploration of the southwestern part of the United States. 

In 1539-1541 De Soto and his band explored the southeastern part of 
the United States from Florida to the Mississippi River. 

By 1582 two Spanish settlements had been made in the United States 
— St. Augustine, 1565, and Santa F^, 1582. 





1492. 
1493. 


« 


1497. 


1 


1498. 




1500. 
1501. 






•< 


5 




i^ 


^ 


■§ 


Pi 


.-J 


> 


^^ 




V 


y 


►sj 


2 


h 



Columbus. Islands off the coast. 

Columbus. Islands off the coast. 

John Cabot. North America. Labrador. 

John and Sebastian Cabot. Labrador to Cape 
Cod. 

Pinzon and Solis. Florida to Chesapeake Bay. 

Cabral. Discovers Brazil. 

Vespucius. Explores Brazilian coast. 
1500-1502. Cortereals. Explore coast North America. 
1513. Ponce de Leon. Discovers and names Florida. 

1498. Pinzon and Solis. Explore Gulf of Mexico and 
coast of Florida. 

1519. Pineda. Sails from Florida to Mexico. 
1528. Narvaez. Florida to Texas. 

1543. Followers of De Soto sail from Mississippi River 
to Mexico. 

1519-21. Cortes. Conquers Mexico. 

1534-36. De Vaca. From the Sabine River to the Gulf 
of California. 

1539. Fray Marcos. Search for the Seven Cities, Wan- 
ders over New Mexico. 

1540-42. Coronado. Gila River, Rio Grande, Colorado 
River. 

1539-41. De Soto. Wanders over Florida, Georgia, and 
Alabama, and reaches the Mississippi River. 

1582-1600. Spaniards in the valleys of the Gila and Rio 
Grande. 

1513. Balboa. Discovers the Pacific Ocean. 

1520. Magellan. Sails around South America into the 

Pacific. 
1578-1580. Drake. Sails around South America and 
up the Pacific coast to Oregon. (See p. 26. ) 



THE ENGLISH COLONIES 

CHAPTER III 

ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND SWEDES ON THE SEABOARD 

15. The English Claim to the Seaboard. — After the Spaniards 
had thus explored the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and what 
is now Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, the English attempted 
to take possession of the Atlantic coast. The voyages of John 
a.nd Sebastian Cabot in 1497 and 1498 were not followed up in 
the same way that Spain followed up those of Columbus, and 
for nearly eighty years the flag of England was not displayed 
in any of our waters.^ At last, in 1576, Sir Martin Erobisher 
set out to find a northwest passage to Asia. Of course he 
failed; but in that and two later voyages he cruised about 
the shores of our continent and gave his name to Frobisher's 
Bay.^ Next came Sir Francis Drake, the greatest seaman of 
his age. He left England in 1577, crossed the Atlantic, sailed 
down the South American coast, passed through the Strait of 
Magellan, and turning northward coasted along South America, 
Mexico, and California, in search of a northeast passage to the 
Atlantic. When he had gone as far north as Oregon the 
weather grew so cold that his men began to murmur, and 
putting his ship about, he sailed southward along our Pacific 
coast in search of a harbor, which in June, 1579, he found near 
the present city of San Francisco. There he landed, and 
putting up a post nailed to it a brass plate on which was the 

1 For Cabot's voyages read Fiske's Discovery of America, Vol. II., 
pp. 2-15. 

'- See map on p. 15. 

26 



THE KNGLISH ON THE SEABOARD 27 

name of Queen Elizabeth, and took possession of the country.' 
Despairing of finding a short passage to England, ] )rake finally 
crossed the Pacific and reached home by way of the Cape of 
Grood Hope. He had sailed around the globe. ^ 

16. Gilbert and Ralegh attempt to found a Colony. — While 
Drake wiis making his voyage, another gallant seaman, Sir 
Humphrey Gilbert, was given (by Queen Elizabeth) any new 
land he might discover in America. His first attempt (1579) 
was a failure, and while on his way home from a landing on 
Newfoundland (1583), his ship, with all on board, went down 
in a storm at sea. The next year (1584) his half-brother, 
Sir Walter Ralegh, one of the most accomplished men of his 
day and a great favorite with Queen Elizabeth, obtained per- 
mission from the Queen to make a settlement on any part of 
the coast of America not already occupied by a Christian 
power ; and he at once sent out an expedition. The explorers 
landed on Eoanoke Island, off the coast of what is now Korth 
Carolina, and came home with such a glowing description of 
the " good land " they had found that the Virgin Queen called 
it "Virginia," in honor of herself, and Ralegh determined to 
colonize it.^ 

17. Roanoke Colony; the Potato and Tobacco. — In 1585, 
accordingly, 108 emigrants under Rali^h Lane left England 
and began to build a town on Roanoke Island. They were 
ill suited for this kind of pioneer life, and were soon in such 
distress that, had not Sir Francis Drake in one of his voyages 
happened to touch at Roanoke, they would have starved to 
death. Drake, seeing their helplessness, carried them home to 
England. Yet their life on the island was not without results, 
for they took back with them the potato, and some dried tobacco 
leaves which the Indians had taught them to smoke. 

1 The white cliffs reminded Drake strongly of the cliffs of Dover, and 
as one of the old names of England was Albion (the country of the 
white cliffs), he called the land New Albion. 

2 For Drake read E. T. Payne's Voyages of Elizabethan Seamen. 

3 For Kalegh read E. Gosse's Baleigh (in English Worthies Series); 
Louise Creighton's Sir W. Balegh (Historical Biographies Series). 



28 



THE ENGLISH COLONIES 



V I Cape Charles 

/ y. ^^~"-~- ^Cape Henry 



E-alegh, of course, was greatly disappointed to see his colo- 
nists again in England. But he was not discouraged, and in 
1587 sent forth a second band. The first had consisted 
entirely of men. The second band was composed of both 
men and women with their families, for it seemed likely that 

if the men took their 
wives and children 
along they would be 
more likely to remain 
than if they went, 
alone. John White 
was the leader, and 
with a charter and 
instructions to build 
the city of Ralegh 
somewhere on the 
shores of Chesapeake 
Bay he set off with his 
colonists and landed 
on Eoanoke Island. 
Here a little grand- 
daughter was born 
(August 18, 1587), 
and named Virginia. 
She was the child of 
Eleanor Dare, and 
was the first child 
born of English par- 
Roanoke Island and vicinity ^^^^ ^^ America. 

Governor White soon found it necessary to go back to Eng- 
land for supplies, and, in consequence of the Spanish war, 
three years slipped by before he was able to return to the 
colony. He was then too late. Every soul had perished, and 
to this day nobody knows how or where. E-alegh could do 
no more, and in 1589 made over all his rights to a joint-stock 
company of merchants. This company did nothing, and 




Cape Lookout 



. THE ENGLISH ON THE SEABOARD 29 

the sixteenth century came to an end with no English colony 
in America.^ 

18. Gosnold in New England. — With the new century came 
better fortune. Ealegh's noble efforts to plant a colony 
aroused Englishmen to the possibility of founding a great 
empire in the New World, and especially one named Bartholo- 
mew Gosnold. 

Instead of following the old route to America by way of the 
Canary Islands, the West Indies, and Florida, he sailed due 
west across the Atlantic,^ and brought up on the shore of a 
cape which he named Cape Cod.^ Following the shore south- 
ward, he passed through Nantucket Sound and Vineyard 
Sound, till he came to Cuttyhunk Island, at the entrance of 
Buzzards Bay. On this he landed, and built a house for the 
use of colonists he intended to leave there. But when he had 
filled his ship with sassafras roots and cedar logs, nobody would 
remain, and the whole company went back to England.* 

19. The Two Virginia Companies. — As a result of this voyage, 
Gosnold was more eager than ever to plant a colony in Vir- 
ginia, and this enthusiasm he communicated so fully to others 
that, in 1606, King James I. created two companies to settle 
in Virginia, which was then the name for all the territory 
from what is now Maine to Florida. 

1. Each company was to own a block of land 100 miles 
square; that is, 100 miles along the coast, — 50 miles 
each way from its first settlement, — and 100 miles into 
the interior. 

1 Doyle's English Colonies in America, Virginia, pp. 56-74 ; Ban- 
croft's History of the United States, Vol. I., pp. 60-79; Hildreth's History 
of the United States, Vol. I. , pp. 80-87. 

2 By thus shortening the journey 3000 miles, he practically brought 
America 3000 miles nearer to Europe. 

3 Because the waters thereabout abounded in codfish. For a compari- 
son of Gosnold's route with those of the other early explorers see the 
map on p. 15. 

* Bancroft's United States, Vol. I., pp. 70-83. Hildreth's United 
States, Vol. I., p. 90. 



30 THE ENGLISH COLONIES 

2. The First Compan}^, a band of London merchants, might 

establish its first settlement anywhere between 34° and 
41° north latitude. 

3. The Second Company, a band of Plymouth merchants, 

might establish its first settlement anywhere between 
38° and 45°. 

4. These settlements were to be on the seacoast. 

5. In order to prevent the blocks from overlapping, it was 

provided that the company which was last to settle 
should locate at least 100 miles from the other com- 
pany's settlement.^ 

20. The Jamestown Colony. — Thus empowered, the two com- 
panies mada all haste to gather funds, collect stores and set- 
tlers, and fit out ships. The London Company was the first to 
get ready, and on the 19th of December, 1606, 143 colonists 
set sail in three ships for America with their charter, and a 
list of the council sealed up in a strong box. The Plymouth 
Company soon followed, and before the year 1607 was far ad- 
vanced, two settlements were planted in our country : the one 
at Jamestown, in Virginia, the other near the mouth of the 
Kennebec, in Maine. The latter, however, was abandoned the 
following year (see p. 40). 

The three ships which carried the Virginia colony reached 
the coast in the spring of 1607, and entering Chesapeake Bay 
sa,iled up a river which the colonists called the James, in honor 
of the King. When about thirty miles from its mouth, a 
landing was made on a little peninsula, where a settlement was 

1 Over the affairs of each company presided a council appointed by the 
King, with power to choose its own president, fill vacancies among its own 
members, and elect a council of thirteen to reside on the company's lands 
in America. Each company might coin money, raise a revenue by taxing 
foreign vessels trading at its ports, punish crime, and make laws which, 
if bad, could be set aside by the King. All property was to be owned in 
common, and all the products of the soil deposited in a public magazine 
from which the needs of the settlers were to be supplied. The surplus 
was to be sold for the good of the company. 'J'he charter is given in full 
in Poore's Charters and Constitutions^ pp. 1888-1893. 



THE ENGLISH ON THE SEABOARD 



31 



begun and named Jamestown.^ It was the month of May, and 
as the weather was warm, the colonists did not build houses, 
but, inside of some rude fortifications, put np shelters of sails 
and branches to serve till huts could be built. But their food 
gave out, the Indians were hostile, and before September half 
of the party had died of fever. Had it not been for the energy 
and courage of John Smith, every one of them would have per- 
ished. He practically as- 
sumed command, set the 
men to building huts, per- 
suaded the Indians to give 
them food, explored the 
bays and rivers of Vir- 
ginia, and for two dreary 
years held the colony to- 
gether. When we con- 
sider the worthless men 
he had to deal with, and 
the hardships and difficul- 
ties that beset him, his 
work is wonderful. The 
history which he wrote, 
however, is not to be 
trusted.^ 

Bad as matters were, 
they became worse when 
a little fleet arrived with many new settlers, making the 
whole number about 500. The newcomers were a worthless 
set picked up in the streets of London or taken from the jails, 

1 Nothing now remains of Jamestown but tlie ruined tower of the church 
shown in the picture. Much of the land on which the town stood has 
been washed away by the river, so that its site is now an island. 

2 Read the Life and Writings of Captain John Smith, by Charles Dudley 
Warner; also John Fiske in Atlantic Monthhj, December, 1895; Eggles- 
ton's Beginners of a Nation, pp. 31-38. Smith's True Relation is printed 
in American History Leaflets^ No. 27, and Library of American Literature, 
Vol. I. 




All that is left of Jamestown 



32 



THE ENGLISH COLONIES 



and utterly unfit to be- 
come the founders of a 
state in the wilderness 
of the New World. Out 
of such material Smith 
in time might have 
made something, but he 
was forced by a wound 
to return to England, 
and the colony went 
rapidly to ruin. Sick- 
ness and famine did 
their work so quickly 
that after six months 
there were but sixty 
of the 500 men alive. 
Then two small ships, 
under Sir Thomas Gates 
and Sir George Soraers, 
arrived at Jamestown 
with more settlers ; but 
all decided to flee, and 
had actually sailed a 
few miles down the 
James, when, June 8, 
1610, they met Lord 
Delaware with three 
ships full of men and supplies coming up the river. Delaware 
came out as governor under a new charter granted in 1609.^ 

21. The Virginia Charter of 1609 made a great change in 
the boundary of the company's property. By the 1606 charter 
the colony was limited to 100 miles along the seaboard and 
100 miles west from the coast. In 1609 the company was 
given an immense domain reaching 400 miles along the coast. 




^^ohl Pt. Com fort 
J X C vC. Henry 



Vicinity of Jamestown 



1 Read "The Jamestown Experiments,' 
Nation, pp. 25-72. 



in Eggleston's Beginners of a 



THE ENGLISH ON THE SEABOARD 



33 




- '«<i Pt.Com.fort \ 



— 200 miles each way from Old Point Comfort, — and extend- 
ing "up into the land throughout fro7)i sea to sea, west and 
northwest." This description is very important, for it was 
afterwards claimed by Virginia to mean a grant of land of the 
shape shown on the 
map.^ 

22. The First Rep- 
resentative Assembly in 
America. — Under the 
new charter and new 
governors Virginia be- 
gan to thrive. More 
work and less grum- 
bling were done, and a 
few wise reforms were 
introduced. One gov- 
ernor, however, Ar- 
gall, ruled the colony 
so badly that the peo- 
ple turned against him and sent such reports to England that 
immigration almost ceased. The company, in consequence, re- 
moved Argall, and gave Virginia a better form of government. 
In future, the governor's power was to be limited, and the 
people were to have a share in the making of laws and the 
management of affairs. As the colonists, now numbering 4000 
men, were living in eleven settlements, or " boroughs," it was 
ordered that each borough should elect two men to sit in a 
legislature to be called the House of Burgesses. This house, 
the first representative assembly ever held by white men in 
America, met on July 30, 1619, in the church at Jamestown, 
and there began " government of the people, by the people, for 
the people." 

23. The Establishment of Slavery in America. — It is interest- 
ing to note that at the very time the men of Virginia thus 
planted free representative government in America, another 

1 Read Hinsdale's Old Northwest, pp. 74, 75. 
McM. Hist. —3 



34 THE ENGLISH COLONIES 

institution was planted beside it, which, in the course of two 
hundred and fifty years, almost destroyed free government. 
The Burgesses met in July, and a few weeks later, on an 
August day, a Dutch ship entered the James and before it 
sailed away sold twenty negroes into slavery. The slaves in- 
creased in numbers (there were 2000 in Virginia in 1671), and 
slavery spread to the other colonies as they were started, till, 
in time, it existed in every one of them. 

24. Virginia loses her Charter, 1624. — The establishment of 
popular government in Virginia was looked on by King James 
as a direct affront, and was one of many weighty reasons why 
he decided to destroy the company. To do this, he accused 
it of mismanagement, brought a suit against it, and in 1624 
his judges declared the charter annulled, and Virginia became 
a royal colony.^ 

25. Maryland begun. — A year later James died, and Charles I. 
came to the throne. As Virginia was now a royal colony, 
the land belonged to the King ; and as he was at liberty to do 
what he pleased with it, he cut off a piece and gave it to Lord 
Baltimore. George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, was a Koman 
Catholic nobleman who for years past had been interested in 
the colonization of America, and had tried to plant a colony 
in Newfoundland. The severity of the climate caused failure, 
and in 1629 he turned his attention to Virginia and visited 
Jamestown. But religious feeling ran as high there as it did 
anywhere. The colonists were intolerantly Protestant, and 
Baltimore was ordered back to England. 

Undeterred by such treatment, Baltimore was more deter- 
mined than ever to plant a colony, and in 1632 obtained his 
grant of a piece of Virginia. The tract lay between the 
Potomac River and the fortieth degree of north latitude, and 
extended from the Atlantic Ocean to a north and south line 

1 On the Virginia colony in general read Doyle's volume on Virginia, 
pp. 104-184 ; Lodge's English Colonies in America, pp. 1-12 ; of course, 
Bancroft and Ilildreth. Eor particular epochs or events consult Chan- 
ning and Hart's Guide to American History, pp. 248-253. 



THE ENGLISH ON THE SEABOARD 



35 



through, the source of the Potomac.^ It was called Maryland 
ill honor of the Queen, Henrietta Maria. 

The area of the colony was not large ; but the authority of 
Lord Baltimore over it was almost boundless. He was to bring; 
to the King each year, in token of homage, two Indian arrow- 
heads, and pay as rent one fifth of all the gold and silver mined. 
This done, the " lord proprietary," as he was called, was to all 
intents and purposes a king. He might coin money, make war 



f^AWW^^ 




ORIGINAL BOUNDARY 

OF 

MARYLAND 



and peace, grant titles of nobility, establish courts, appoint 
judges, and pardon criminals ; but he was not permitted to tax 
his people without their consent. He must summon the free- 
men to assist him in making the laws ; but when made, they 
need not be sent to the King for approval, but went into force 
as soon as the lord proprietary signed them. Of course tho- 
must not be contrary to the laws of England. 

26. Treatment of Catholics. — The deed for Maryland hr . not 
been issued when Lord Baltimore died. It was therefo- made 



1 It thus included what is now Delaware, and pieces of rcnnsylvania 
and West Virg-inia. 



36 THE ENGLISH COLONIES 

out in the name of his son, Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord 
Baltimore, who, like the first, was a Koman Catholic, and was 
influenced in his attempts at colonization by a desire to found 
a refuge for people of his own faith. At that time in England 
no Eoman Catholic was permitted to educate his children in 
a foreign land, or to employ a schoolmaster of his religious 
belief; or keep a weapon ; or have Catholic books in his house ; 
or sit in Parliament ; or when he died be buried in a parish 
churchyard. If he did not attend the parish church, he was 
fined £20 a month. But it is needless to mention the ways 
in which he suffered for his religion. It is enough to know 
that the persecution was bitter, and that the purpose of Lord 
Baltimore was to make Maryland a Eoman Catholic colony. 
Yet he set a noble example to other founders of colonies 
by freely granting to all sects full freedom of conscience. 
As long as the Catholics remained in control, toleration 
worked well. But in the year 1691 Lord Baltimore was de- 
prived of his colony because he had supported King James 
11. , and in 1692 sharp laws were made in Maryland against 
Catholics by the Protestants. In 1716 the colony was re- 
stored to the proprietor. 

The first settlement was made in 1634 at St. Marys. An- 
napolis was founded about 1683 ; and Baltimore in 1729.^ 

27. The Dutch on the Hudson. — Meantime great things had 
been happening to the northward. In 1609 Henry Hudson, an 
English sailor in the service of Holland, was sent to find a 
northwest passage to India. He reached our coast not far 
from Portland, Maine, and abandoning all idea of finding a 
passage, he sailed alongshore to the southward as far as Cape 
Cod. Here he put to sea, and when he again sighted land was 
off Delaware Bay. In attempting to sail up it, his ship, the 
Half-Moon, grounded, and Hudson turned about. Bunning 
along the Jersey coast, he entered New York Bay, and sailed 

1 Read Scharf's History of Maryland; Doyle's Virginia, pp. 275-313 ; 
Lodge's English Colonies, pp. 93-109; Eggleston's Beginners of a 
Nation, pp. 224-239. 



THE DUTCH ON THE SEABOARD 



37 



up the river which the Dutch called the North Kiver, but 
which we know as the Hudson. Hudson's voyage gave the 
Dutch a claim to all the country drained by the Delaware or 
South E/iver and the Hudson Kiver, and some Dutch traders at 
once sent out vessels, and were soon trading actively with the 
Indians. By 1614 a rude fort had been erected near the site 
of Albany, and some trading huts had been put up on Manhat- 
tan Island. These ventures proved so profitable that numbers 
of merchants began to engage in the trade, whereupon those 
already in it, in order to shut out others, organized a company, 
and in 1615 obtained a trading charter for three years from 
the States General of Holland, and carried on their operations 
from Albany to the Delaware River. 




View of New Amsterdam in 1656 

28. Dutch West India Company. — On the expiration of the 
charter (in 1618) it was not renewed, but a new corporation, 
the Dutch West India Company (1621), was created with 
almost absolute political and commercial power over all the 
Dutch domains in North America, which were called New 
Netherland.^ In 1623 the company began to send out settlers. 
Some went to Albany, or, as they called it. Fort Orange. 
Others were sent to the South or Delaware Kiver, where a 
trading post, Fort Nassau, was built on the site of Gloucester 
in New Jersey. A few went to the Connecticut Kiver ; some 
settled on Long Island; and others on Manhattan Island, where 
they founded New Amsterdam, now called New York city. 

1 Eor map, see p. 51. 



38 THE ENGLISH COLONIES 

All these little settlements were merely fur-trading posts. 
Nobody was engaged as yet in farming. To encourage this, 
the company (in 1629) took another step, and offered a great 
tract of land, on any navigable river or bay, to anybody who 
would establish a colony of fifty persons above the age of fif- 
teen. If on a river, the domain was to be sixteen miles along 
one bank or eight miles along each bank, and run back into 
the country as far "as the situation of the occupiers will 
admit." The proprietor of the land was to be called a " pa- 
troon," ^ and was absolute ruler of whatever colonies he might 
plant, for he was at once owner, ruler, and judge. It may well 
be supposed that such a tempting offer did not go a-begging, 
and a number of patroons were soon settled along the Hudson 
and on the banks of the Delaware (1631), where they founded 
a town near Lewes. The settlements on the Delaware River 
were short-lived. The settlers quarreled with the Indians, who 
in revenge massacred them and drove off the garrison at Eort 
Nassau; whereupon the patroons sold their rights to the Dutch 
West India Company.^ 

29. The Struggle for the Delaware ; the Swedes on the Dela- 
ware. — And now began a bitter contest for the ownership of 
the country bordering the Delaware. A few leading officials 
of the Dutch Company, disgusted at the way its affairs were 
managed, formed a new company under the lead of William 
Usselinx. As they could not get a charter from Holland, for 
she would not create a rival to the Dutch Company, they sought 

1 The patroon bound himself to (1) transport the fifty settlers to New 
Netherland at his own expense ; (2) provide each of them with a farm 
stocked with horses, cattle, and farming implements, and charge a low 
rent ; (3) employ a schoolmaster and a minister of the Gospel. In return 
for this the emigrant bound himself (1) to stay and cultivate the land 
of the patroon for ten years ; (2) to bring his grain to the patroon's 
mill and pay for grinding ; (3) to use no cloth not made in Holland ; 
(4) to sell no grain or produce till the patroon had been given a chance to 
buy it. 

2 Lodge's English Colonies, pp. 295-311 ; Winsor's Narrative and Crit- 
ical History, Vol. III., pp. 385-411 ; Bancroft's History of the United 
States, Vol. I., pp. 501-608. 



THE SWEDES ON THE SEABOARD 39 

and obtained one from Sweden as the South Company, and 
(1638) sent out a colony to settle on the Delaware Eiver.^ The 
spot chosen was on the site of Wilmington. The country 
was named New Sweden, though it belonged to Maryland. 
The Dutch West India Company protested and rebuilt Fort 
Nassau. The Swedes, in retaliation, went farther up the 
river and fortified an island near the mouth of the Schuyl- 
kill. Had they stopped here, all would have gone well. 
But, made bold by the inaction of the Dutch, they began 
to annoy the New Netherlanders, till (1655) Peter Stuyve- 
sant, the governor of New Netherland, unable to stand 
it any longer, came over from New Amsterdam with a few 
hundred men, overawed the Swedes, and annexed their ter- 
ritory west of the Delaware. New Sweden then became 
part of New Netherland.^ 

SUMMARY 

1. After the discovery of the North American coast by the Cabots, Eng- 

land made no attempt to settle it for nearly eighty years ; and even 
then the colonies planted by Gilbert and Ralegh were failures. 

2. Successful settlement by the English began under the London Com- 

pany in 1607. 

3. In 1609 the London Company obtained a grant of land from sea to 

sea, and extending 400 miles along the Atlantic ; but in 1624 its 
charter was annulled, and in 1632 the King carved the proprietary 
colony of Maryland out of Virginia. 

4. Meantime Henry Hudson, in the employ of the Dutch, discovered the 

Delaware and Hudson rivers (1609), and the Dutch, ignoring the 
claims of England, planted colonies on these rivers and called the 
country New Netherland. 

5. Then a Swedish company began to colonize the Delaware Bay and 

River coast of Virginia, which they called New Sweden. 

6. Conflicts between the Dutch and the Swedes followed, and in 1655 

New Sweden w^as made a part of New Netherland. 

1 Sweden had no right to make such a settlement. She had no claim 
to any territory in North America. 

2 Lodge's English Colonies, pp. 205-210; Bancroft's History/ of the 
United States, Vol. I., pp. 509, 510; Hildreth's History of the United 
States, Vol. I., pp. 413-442, 



CHAPTER IV 

THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND 

30. The Beginnings of New England. — When the Dutch 
put up their trading posts where New York and Albany now 
stand, all the country east of New York, all of what is now 
New England, was a wilderness. As early as 1607 an attempt 
was made to settle it and a colony was planted on the coast of 
Maine by two members of the Plymouth Company, Sir John 
Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England, and Sir Eerdinando 
Gorges, governor of Plymouth. But the colonists were half 
starved and frozen, and in the spring of 1608 gladly went 
home to England. 

Six years later John Smith, the hero of Virginia, explored 
and mapped the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod. He 
called the country New England; one of the rivers, the 
Charles; and two of the promontories. Cape Elizabeth and 
Cape Ann. Three times he attempted to lead out a colony; 
but that work was reserved for other men. 

31. The Separatists. — The reign of Queen Elizabeth had 
witnessed in England the rise of a religious sect which in- 
sisted that certain changes should be made in the government 
and ceremonials of the Established or State Church of England. 
This they called purifying the Church, and in consequence they 
were themselves called Puritans.^ At first they did not intend 
to form a new sect; but in 1580 one of their ministers, named 
Eobert Brown, urged them to separate from the Church of 

1 Read Fiske's Beginnings of New England, pp. 50-71. The teacher 
may read " Rise and Development of Puritanism " in Eggleston's Begin- 
ners of a Nation, pp. 98-140. 

40 



THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND 41 

England, and soon gathered about him a great number of fol- 
lowers, who were called Separatists or Brownists. They 
boldly asserted their right to worship as they pleased, and 
put their doctrines into practice. So hot a persecution fol- 
lowed, that in 1608 a party, led by William Brewster and 
John Kobinson, fled from Scrooby, a little village in northern 
England, to Amsterdam, in Holland; but soon went on to 
Leyden, where they dwelt eleven years. ^ 

32. Why the Separatists went to New England. — They had 
come to Holland as an organized community, practicing 
English manners and customs. For a temporary residence 
this would do. But if they and their children's children after 
them were to remain and prosper, they must break up their 
organization, forget their native land, their native speech, 
their national traditions, and to all intents and purposes be- 
come Dutch. This they could not bring themselves to do, 
and by 1617 they had fully determined to remove to some land 
where they might still continue to be Englishmen, and where 
they might lay the foundations of a Christian state. But 
one such land could then be found, and that was America. 
To America, therefore, they turned their attention, and after 
innumerable delays formed a company and obtained leave 
from the London Company to settle on the coast of what is 
now New Jersey.^ 

This done, Brewster and Bradford and Miles Standish, with 
a little band, sent out as an advance guard, set sail from the 
Dutch port of Delft Haven in July, 1620, in the ship Speedwell. 
The first run was to Southampton, England, where some 
friends from London joined them in the Mayjfoiver, and 
whence, August 5, they sailed for America. But the Sj^eed- 
well proved so unseaworthy that the two ships put back to 
Plymouth, where twenty people gave up the voyage. Sep- 

1 Read Eggleston's Beginners of a Nation, pp. 141-157 ; Eiske's 
Beginnings of New England^ pp. 71-80 ; Doyle's Puritan Colonies, Vol. 
I., pp. 47-81 ; Palfrey's New England, Vol. I., pp. 176-232. 

2 Eggleston's Beginners of a Nation, pp. 159-176. 



42 



THE ENGLISH COLONIES 



tember 6, 1620, such as remained steadfast, just 102 in num- 
ber, reembarked on the Mayflower and began the most mem- 
orable of voyages. The weather was so foul, and the wind 
and sea so boisterous, that nine weeks passed before they 
beheld the sandy shores of Cape Cod. Having no right to 
settle there, as the cape lay far to the northward of the lands 




The Majrfloweri 

owned by the London Company, they turned their ship south- 
ward and attempted to go on. But head winds drove them 
back and forced them to seek shelter in Provincetown harbor, 
at the end of Cape Cod. 

33. The Mayflower Compact. — Since it was then the 11th of 
November, the Pilgrims, as they are now called, decided to 
1 From the model in the National Museum, Washington. 



THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND 



43 





Concomf Lexin^-ton Sautxus Vj 



THE 

MASSACHUSETTS 

COAST 

, SCALE OF MILES 

U to 20 



ea«,;:o/'S 






£^F 




get permission from the Plymouth Company to remain per- 
manently. But certain members of the party, when they 
heard this, became unruly, and declared that as they were not 
to land in Virginia, they were no longer bound by the con- 
tracts they had made in England regarding their emigration to 
Virginia. To put an end to this, a meeting was held, Novem- 
ber 21, 1620, in the cabin of the Mayflower, and a compact 
was drawn up and signed.^ It declared 

1. That they were loyal subjects of the King. 

1 The compact is in Poore's Charters and Constitutions, p. 931, and 
in Preston's Documents Illustrative of American History, pp. 29-31. 
Kead, by all means, Webster's Plymouth Oration. 



44 



THE ENGLISH COLONIES 



2. That they had undertaken to found a colony in the northern 

parts of Virginia, and now bound themselves to form a 
"civil body politic." 

3. That they would frame such just and equal laws, from 

time to time, as might be for the general good. 

4. And to these laws they promised "all due submission and 

obedience." 

34. The Founding of Plymouth. — The selection of a site for 
their home was now necessary, and five weeks were passed in 

exploring the coast before Cap- 
tain Standish with a boatload of 
men entered the harbor which 
John Smith had noted on his map 
and named Plymouth. On the 
sandy shore of that harbor, close 
to the water's edge, was a little 
granite bowlder, and on this, ac- 
cording to tradition, the Pilgrims 
stepped as they came ashore, De- 
cember 21, 1620. To this harbor 
the Mayjloiver was brought, and 
the work of founding Plymouth 
was begun. The winter was a 
dreadful one, and before spring 
fifty-one of the colonists had died.^ But the Pilgrims stood 
fast, and in 1621 obtained a grant of land^ from the Council 
for New England, which had just succeeded the Plymouth 
Company, under a charter giving it control between latitudes 
40° and 48°, from sea to sea.^ It was from the same Council 

1 In the trying times which followed, William Bradford was chosen gov- 
ernor and many times reelected. He wrote the so-called " Log of the May- 
flower," — really a manuscript History of the Flymouth Plantation from 
1602 to 1647, — a fragment of which is reproduced on the opposite page. 

2 This grant had no boundary. Each settler might have 100 acres. 
Fifteen hundred acres were set aside for public buildings. 

3 Eiske's Beginnings of New England, pp. 80-87 ; Palfrey's New Eng- 
land,Yo\. L,pp. 176-232; T\\diiQhQT's History of the Town of Plymouth. 




Plymouth Rock 



dyf ^ml/i jpftoifdiorL 



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cA- O/^Pt- C»^f>fto^itys "TfrfA ■memy ^n^y»^iff£f»- C<mnortij^d^ctrs 



46 THE ENGLISH COLONIES 

that for fifteen years to come all other settlers in New England 
obtained their rights to the soil. 

35. A Puritan Colony proposed. — Among those who obtained 
such rights was a company of Dorchester merchants who planted 
a town on Cape Ann. The enterprise failed, and the colonists 
went off and settled at a place they called Naumkeag. But 
there was one man in Dorchester who was not discouraged by 
failure. He was John White, a Puritan rector. What had 
been done by the Separatists in a small way might be done, it 
seemed to White, on a great scale by an association of wealthy 
and influential Puritans. The matter was discussed by them 
in London, and in 1628 an association was formed, and a tract 
of land was bought from the Council for New England. 

36. The "Sea to Sea" Grant. — Concerning the interior of 
our continent absolutely nothing was known. Nobody sup- 
posed it was more than half as wide as it really is. The 
grant to the association, therefore, stretched from three miles 
north of the Merrimac Eiver to three miles south of the Charles 
Eiver, along these rivers to their sources, and then westward 
across the continent from sea to sea.^ 

As soon as the grant was obtained, John Endicott came out 
with a company of sixty persons, and took up his abode at 
Naumkeag, which, being an Indian and therefore a pagan 
name, he changed to Salem, the Hebrew word for " peace." 

37. The Massachusetts Charter, 1629. — The next step was to 
obtain the right of self-government, which was secured by a 
royal charter creating a corporation known as the Governor 
and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England. Over 
the affairs of the company were to preside a governor, deputy 
governor, and a council of eighteen to be elected annually by 
the members of the company.^ 

1 You will Jiotice that when this grant was made in 1628 the Dutch had 
discovered the Hudson, and had begun to settle Albany. To this region 
(the Hudson and Mohawk valleys) the English had no just claim. 

2 The charter is printed in Poore's Charters and Constitutions, pp. 
932-942, and in Preston's Documents, pp. 36-61. 



THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND 47 

Six ships were now fitted out, and in them 40G men, women, 
and chiklren, with 140 head of cattle, set sail for Massachusetts. 
They reached Salem in safety and made it the largest colony in 
New England. 

38. Why the Puritans came to New England. — It was in 1625 
that Charles I. ascended the throne of England. Under him 
the quarrel with the Puritans grew worse each year. He vio- 
lated his promises, he collected illegal taxes, he quartered 
troops on the people, he threw those into prison who would 
not contribute to his forced loans, or pressed them into the 
army or the navy. His Archbishop Laud persecuted the Puri- 
tans with shameful cruelty. 

Little wonder then that in 1629 twelve leading Puritans 
met in consultation and agreed to head a great migration 
to the New World, provided the charter and the government 
of the Massachusetts Bay Company were both removed to 
New England. This was agreed to, and in April, 1630, John 
AVinthrop sailed with nearly one thousand Puritans for Salem. 
From Salem he moved to Charlestown, and later in the year 
(1630) to a little three-hilled peninsula, which the English called 
Tri-mountain or Tremont. There a town was founded and 
called Boston. 

The departure of Winthrop was the signal, and before the 
year 1630 ended, seventeen ships, bringing fifteen hundred 
Puritans, reached Massachusetts. The newcomers settled 
Charlestown, Boston, Koxbury, Dorchester, Watertown, and 
Newtown (now Cambridge). New England was planted.^ 

39. New Hampshire and Maine. — When it became apparent 
that the Plymouth colony was permanently settled, Sir Fer- 
dinando Gorges, whose interest in New England had never 
lagged, together with John Mason obtained (1622) from the 
Council for New England a grant of Laconia, as they called 
the territory between the Merrimac and the Kennebec rivers, 
and from the Atlantic "to the great river of Canada." Seven 

1 Read Fiske's Beginnings of New England, pp. 75-105. Eggleston's 
Beginners of a Nation, pp. 188-219. 



48 THE ENGLISH COLONIES 

years later (1629) they divided their property. Mason, taking 
the territory between the Merrimac and Piscataqua rivers, 
called it New Hampshire because he was Lord Lieutenant of 
Hampshire in England. Gorges took the region between the 
Piscataqua and the Kennebec, and called it Maine. After 
the death of Mason (1635) his colony was neglected and from 
1641 to 1679 was annexed to Massachusetts. The King sepa- 
rated them in 1679, joined them again in 1688, and finally 
parted them in 1691, making New Hampshire a royal colony. 

Gorges took better care of his part and (in 1639) was given 
a charter with the title of Lord Proprietor of the Province 
or County of Maine, which extended, as before, from the 
Piscataqua to the Kennebec, and backward 120 miles from the 
ocean. But after his death the province fell into neglect, and 
the towns were gradually absorbed by Massachusetts, which, 
in 1677, bought the claims of the heir of Gorges for £1250 and 
governed Maine as lord proprietor under the Gorges charter. 

40. Church and State in Massachusetts. — Down to the 
moment of their arrival in America the Puritans had not 
been Separatists. They were still members of the Church 
of England who desired to see her form of worship purified. 
But the party under Endicott had no sooner reached Salem 
than they seceded, and the first Congregational Church in New 
England was founded. 

Some in Salem were not prepared for so radical a step, 
and attempted to establish a church on the episcopal model ; 
but Endicott promptly sent two of the leaders back to Eng- 
land. Thus were established two facts: 1. The separation 
or secession of the Colonial Church from that of England. 
2. That the episcopal form of worship would not be tolerated 
in the colony. 

In 1631 another step was taken which united church and 
state, for it was then ordered that " no man shall be admitted 
to the freedom of this body politic, but such as are members 
of some of the churches within the limits of the same." 

This was intolerance of the grossest kind, and soon became 



THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND 49 

tlie cause of troubles which led to the founding of Rhode 
Island and Connecticut. 

41. The Planting of Rhode Island. — There came to Salem 
(from Plymouth), in 1633, a young minister named Koger 
Williams. He dissented heartily from the intolerance of the 
people of Massachusetts, and, though a minister of the Salem 
church, insisted 

1. On the separation of church and state, 

2. On the toleration of all religious beliefs. 

3. On the repeal of all laws requiring attendance on religious 

worship. 

To us, in this century, the justice of each of these principles 
is self-evident. But in the seventeenth century there was no 
country in the world where it was safe to declare them. For 
doing so in some parts of Europe, a man would most certainly 
have been burned at the stake. For doing so in England, 
he would have been put in the pillory, or had his ears cut off, 
or been sent to jail. That Williams's teachings should seem 
rank heresy in New England was quite natural. But, to make 
matters worse, he wrote a pamphlet in which he boldly stated 

1. That the soil belonged to the Indians. 

2. That the settlers could obtain a valid title only by purchase- 

from the Indians. 

3. That accepting a deed for the land from a mere intruder 

like the King of England was a sin requiring public 
repentance. 

In the opinion of the people of New England such doctrine 
could not fail to bring down on Massachusetts the wrath of 
the King. When, therefore, a little later, Endicott cut the red 
cross of St. George out of the colors of the Salem militia, the 
people considered his act a defiance of royal authority, attrib- 
uted it to the teachings of Williams, and proceeded to punish 
both. Endicott was rebuked by the General Court (or legis- 
lature) and forbidden to hold office for a vear. Williams was 
McM. Hist. — 4 



50 THE ENGLISH COLONIES 

ordiered to go back to England. But he fled to the woods, and 
made his way through the snow to the wigwam of the Indian 
chief, Massasoit, on Narragansett Bay, and there in the summer 
of 1636 he founded Providence. About the same time another 
teacher of what was then thought heresy, Anne Hutchinson, 
was driven from Massachusetts, and with some of her followers 
went southward and founded Portsmouth and Newport, on the 
island of Rhode Island. For a while each of these settlements 
was independent, but in 1643 Williams went to London and 
secured a patent from Parliament which united them under 
the name of " The Incorporation of Providence Plantations on 
the Narragansett Bay in jSTew England." 

42. Connecticut begun. — In the same year that Roger Wil- 
liams began his settlement at Providence, several hundred 
people from the towns near Boston went off and settled in the 
Connecticut valley. For a long time past there had been grow- 
ing up in Massachusetts a strong feeling that the law that none 
but church members should vote or hold office was oppressive. 
This feeling became so strong that in 1635 some hardy 
pioneers from Dorchester pushed through the wilderness and 
settled at Windsor. A party from Watertown went further 
and settled Wethersfield. These were small movements. But 
in 1636 the Newtown congregation, led by its pastor, Thomas 
Hooker, walked to the Connecticut valley and founded Hartford. 
The congregations of the Dorchester and Watertown churches 
soon followed, while a party from Roxbury settled at Spring- 
field. During three years these four towns were part of Massar 
chusetts. But in 1639, Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield 
adopted a constitution and formed a little republic which in 
time was called Connecticut. Their "Fundamental Orders 
of Connecticut" was the first written constitution made in 
America. Their republic was the first in the history of the 
world to be founded by a written constitution, and marks the 
beginning of democratic government in our country. 

43. The New Haven Colony. — Just at the time these things 
were happening in the Connecticut valley, the beginnings of 



THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND 



51 



another little republic were made on the shores of Long Island 
Sound. One day in the summer of 1637 there came to Boston 
a company of rich London merchants under the lead of an elo- 
quent preacher named John Davenport. The people of Boston 
would gladly have kept the newcomers at that town. But the 
strangers desired to found a state of their 
own, and so, after spending some months 
in seeking for a spot with a good harbor, 
they left Boston in 1638 and founded 
:N"ew Haven. In 1639 Milford and Guil- 
ford were laid out, and Stamford was 
started in 1640. Three years later these 
four towns joined 
in a sort of fed- 
eral union and 
took the name of 
the New Haven 
colony.^ 




44. **The United Colonies of New England." — There were 
now .five colonies in New England; namely, Plymouth, or the 
" Old Colony," Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 
and New Haven. Geographically, they were near each other. 
But each was weak in numbers, and if left without the 
' Eiske's Beginnings of New England, pp. 134-137. 



52 THE ENGLISH COLONIES 

aid of its neighbors, miglit easily have fallen a prey to some 
enemy. Of this the settlers were well aware, and in 1643 
four of the colonies, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecti- 
cut, and New Haven ^ united for defense against the Indians 
and the Dutch, who claimed the Connecticut valley and so 
threatened the English colonies on the west. 

The name of this league was " The United Colonies of New 
England," and it was the first attempt in America at federal 
government. All its affairs were managed by a board of eight 
commissioners, — two from each colony, — who must be church 
members. They had no power to lay taxes or to meddle with 
the internal concerns of the colonies, but they had entire con- 
trol over all dealings with Indians or with foreign powers. 

45. The Year 1643. — The year 1643 is thus an important 
one in colonial history. It was in that year that the New 
Haven colony was founded; that the league of The United 
Colonies of New England was formed; and that Eoger Wil- 
liams obtained the first charter of Ehode Island. 

46. New Charters. — During the next twenty years no changes 
took place in the boundaries of the colonies. This was the 
period of the Civil War in England, of the Commonwealth, 
of the rule of Cromwell and the Puritans ; and affairs in New 
England were left to take care of themselves. But in 1660 
Charles II. was restored to the throne of England, and a new 
era opens in colonial history. In 1661 the little colony of Con- 
necticut promptly acknowledged the restoration of Charles II. 
and applied for a charter. The application was more than 
granted ; for to Connecticut (1662) was given not only a charter 
and an immense tract of land, but also the colony of New 
Haven.^ The land grant was comprised in a strip that stretched 

1 Rhode Island was not allowed to come in, for the feeling against the 
followers of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson was still very strong. 

2 In 1660, after the restoration of Charles II., Edward Whalley and 
William Goffe (the regicides, "king-killers," as they were called), two of 
the judges who had condemned Charles I. to be beheaded, fled to New 
Haven and were protected by the people. This act had much to do with 
the annexation of New Haven to Connecticut. 



THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND 53 

across the continent from Rhode Island to the Pacific and was 
as wide as the present state. ^ In 1G63 Rhode Island was given 
a new charter. 

In 1684 the King's judges declared the Massachusetts charter 
void, and James II. was about to make New England one royal 
colony, when the English people drove him from the throne. 
William and Mary in 1691 granted a new charter and imited 
the Plymouth colony, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia, 
in one colony called Massachusetts Bay. This charter was in 
force when the Revolution opened. 

SUMMARY 

1. The first colony established by the Plymouth Company (1607, on the 

coast of Maine) was a failure. 

2. Captain John Smith explored the New England coast and mapped it 

(1613), but did not succeed in planting any colonies. 

3. The permanent settlement of New England began with the arrival of 

a body of Separatists in the Mayflower (1620), who founded the 
colony of Plymouth, 

4. The Separatist migration from England was followed in a few years 

by a great exodus of Puritans, who planted towns along the coast to 
the north of Plymouth, and obtained a charter of government and a 
great strip of land, and founded the colony of Massachusetts Bay. 

5. Religious disputes drove Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson out of 

Massachusetts, and led to the founding of Rhode Island (1636). 

6. Other church wrangles led to an emigration from Massachusetts to the 

Connecticut valley, where a little confederacy of towns was created 
and called Connecticut. 

7. Some settlers from England went to Long Island Sound and there 

founded four towns which, in their turn, joined in a federal union 
called the New Haven Colony. 

8. In time, New Haven was joined to Connecticut, and Plymouth and 

Maine to Massachusetts ; New Hampshire was made a royal colony ; 
and the four New England colonies — Massachusetts, New Harnp- 
shire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut — were definitely established. 

9. The territory of Massachusetts and Connecticut stretched across the 

continent to the " South Sea," or Pacific Ocean. 

1 Read Fiske's Beginnings of New Englaiid, pp. 192-196. Many of 
the New Haven colonists were disgusted by the union of their colony with 
Connecticut, and in June, 1667, migrated to New Jersey, where they 
founded "New- Ark" or Newark. 



CHAPTER V 



THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES 



47. North and South Carolina. — You remember that away 
back in the sixteenth century the French under Jean Ribault 
and the English under Ralegh undertook to plant colonies on 

. what is now the 

Carolina coast. They 
failed, and the coun- 
try remained a wil- 
derness till 1653, 
when a band of emi- 
grants from Virginia 
made the first per- 
manent settlement 
on the banks of the 
Chowan and the 
Roanoke. In 1663 
some Englishmen 
from Barbados be- 
gan to settle on the 
Cape Eear River, 
just at the time when Charles 11. of England gave the region 
to eight English noblemen, who, out of compliment to the 
King, allowed the name of Carolina given it by Ribault to 
remain. In 1665 the bounds were enlarged, and Carolina then 
extended from latitude 29° 00' to 36° 30', the present south 
boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
There was at first no intention of dividing the territory, 
although, after Charleston was founded (1670), North Carolina 
and South Carolina sometimes had separate governors. But 

54 




1BERLAND I. 

CAROLINA 

AS GRANTED BY 

King Charles II 

SCALE OF MILES 



THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES 55 

in 1729 the proprietors sold Carolina to the King, and it was 
then divided into two distinct and separate royal provinces. 

48. New York. — An event of far greater importance than 
the chartering of Carolina was the seizure of New Nether- 
land. After the conquest of New Sweden, in 1655, the pos- 
sessions and claims of the Dutch in our country extended from 
the Connecticut River to the Delaware River, and from the 
Mohawk to Delaware Bay. Geographically, they cut the 
English colonies in two, and hampered communication between 
New England and the South. To own this region was there- 
fore of the utmost importance to the English ; and to get it. 
King Charles II., in 1664, revived the old claim that the 
English had discovered the country before the Dutch, and he 
sent a little fleet and army, which appeared off New Amster- 
dam and demanded its surrender. The demand was complied 
with ; and in 1664 Dutch rule in our country ended, and Eng- 
land owned the seaboard from the Kennebec to the Savannah. 

The King had already granted New Netherland to his 
brother the Duke of York, in honor of whom the town of New 
Amsterdam was now renamed New York. 

49. New Jersey. — The Duke of York no sooner received his 
province than he gave so much of it as lay between the Dela- 
ware and the ocean to his friends Lord Berkeley and Sir 
George Carteret, and called it New Jersey, in honor of Sir 
George Carteret, who had been governor of the island of Jersey 
in the English Channel. The two proprietors divided it be- 
tween them by the line shown on the map (p. 56). In 1674 
Berkeley sold West Jersey to a company of Quakers, who 
settled near Burlington. A little later, 1676, William Penn 
and some other Quakers bought East Jersey. There were then 
two colonies till 1702, when the proprietors surrendered their 
rights, and New Jersey became one royal province. 

50. The Beginnings of Pennsylvania. — The part which Penn^ 
took in the settlement of New Jersey suggested to him the 
idea of beginning a colony which should be a refuge for the 
persecuted of all lands and of all religions. 



56 



THE ENGLISH COLONIES 




Now it so happened that 
Penn was the son of a 
distinguished admiral to 
whom King Charles II. 
owed £16,000, and seeing 
no chance of its ever being 
paid, he proposed to the 
King, in 1680, that the 
debt be paid with a tract 
of land in America. The 
King gladly agreed, and 
in 1681 Penn received a 
grant west of the Dela- 
ware. Against Penn's 
wish, the King called it 
Pennsylvania, or Penn's 
Woodland. It was given 
almost precisely the 
bounds of the present 
state.i In 1683 Penn 
made a famous treaty with the Indians, and laid out the city 
of Philadelphia. 

51. The Three Lower Counties: Delaware. — If you look at 
p. 124, you will see that Pennsylvania was the only English 
colony which did not have a seacoast. This was a cause of 
some anxiety to Penn, who was afraid that the settlers in Dela- 
ware and New Jersey might try to prevent his colonists from 
going in and out of Delaware Bay. To avoid this, he bought 
what is now Delaware from the Duke of York. 

The three lower counties on the Delaware, as the tract was 

1 There was a long dispute, however, with Lord Baltimore, over the 
south boundary line, which was not settled till 1763-67, when two sur- 
veyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, came over from England 
and located it as at present. In later years, when all the Atlantic sea- 
board states north of Maryland and Delaware had abolished slavery, this 
" Mason and Dixon's Line " became famous as the dividing line between 
the slave and the free Atlantic states. 



"-civ ' ■* ^ "'' 



THE MIDDLE AND SOUTPIEKN COLONIES 



57 



called, had no boundary. Lawfully it belonged to Lord Balti- 
more. But neither the Dutch patroons who settled on the 
Delaware in 1631, nor the Swedes who came later, nor the 
Dutch who annexed Kew Sweden to New Netherland, nor 
the English who conquered the Dutch, paid any regard to Bal- 
timore's rights. At last, after the purchase of Delaware, the 
heirs of Baltimore and of Penn (1732) agreed on what is the 
present boundary line. After 1703 the people of the three 
lower counties were allowed to have an assembly or legislature 
of their own ; but they had the same governor as Pennsylvania 
and were a part of that colony till the Eevolution.^ 

52. Georgia. — The return of the Carolinas to the King in 
1729 was very soon followed by the establishment of the last 
colony ever planted by England in the United States. The 
founder was James Oglethorpe, an English soldier and mem- 
ber of Parliament. Filled with pity for the poor debtors with 
whom the English jails were then crowded, he formed a plan 
to pay the debts of the most deserving, send them to America, 
and give them what hundreds of thousands of men have since 
found in our country, — a chance to begin life anew. 

Great numbers of 
people became inter- 
ested in his plan, and 
finally twenty - two 
persons under Ogle- 
thorpe's lead formed 
an association and se- 
cured a charter from 
King George XL for 
a colony, which they 
called Georgia. The 
territory granted lay 
between the Savan- 




1 For Pennsylvania read Janney's Life of William Penn or Dixon's 
History of William Penn ; Proud's or Gordon's Pennsylvania ; Lodge's 
Colonies, pp. 213-226. 



58 THE ENGLISH COLONIES 

nah and the Altamaha rivers, and extended from their mouths 
to their sources and then across the country to the Pacific 
Ocean. Oglethorpe had selected this tract in order that his col- 
onists might serve the patriotic purpose of protecting Charles- 
ton from the Spanish attacks to which it was then exposed. 

Money for the colony was easily raised,^ and in November, 
1732, Oglethorpe, with 130 persons, set out for Charleston, and 
after a short stay there passed southward and founded the city 
of Savannah (1733). It must not be supposed that all the col- 
onists were poor debtors. In time, Italians from Piedmont, 
jMoravians and Lutherans from Germany, and Scotchmen from 
the Highlands, all made settlements in Georgia. 

53. The Thirteen English Colonies. — Thus it came about that 
between 1606 and 1733 thirteen English colonies were planted 
on the Atlantic seaboard of what is now the United States. 
Naming them from north to south, they were : 1. New Hamp- 
shire, with no definite western boundary; 2. Massachusetts, 
which owned Maine and a strip of territory across the conti- 
nent ; 3. Rhode Island, with her present bounds ; 4. Connecti- 
cut, with a great tract of land extending to the Pacific ; 5. New 
York, with undefined bounds ; 6. New Jersey ; 7. Pennsylvania 
and 8. Delaware, the property of the Penn family; 9. Mary- 
land, the property of the heirs of Lord Baltimore ; 10. Virginia, 
with claims to a great part of North America; 11. North Caro- 
lina, 12. South Carolina, and 13. Georgia, all with claims to 
the Pacific. 

SUMMARY 

L The English seized New Netherland (1664), giving it to the Duke 
of York ; and the Duke, after establishing the province of New 
York, gave New Jersey to two of his friends, and sold the three 
counties on the Delaware to William Penn. 

2. Meanwhile the King granted Penn what is now Pennsylvania (1681). 

3. The Carol inas were first chartered as one proprietary colony, but were 

sold back to the King and finally separated in 1729. 

4. Georgia, the last of the thirteen English colonies, was granted to Ogle- 

thorpe and others as a refuge for poor debtors (1732). 

1 The House of Commons gave £10,000. 



THE ENGLISH COLONIES 



59 



1579. Gilbert. 



English. - 



Failures 



S 1584. ) 
I 1587. i 

1606. 

1607. 
1609. 



1620. 

1622. 
1628. 

1629. 



. Successes 



Dutoh . 



Swedes 



1613. Begin to 
colonize New 
Netherland. 

-1638. South Com- 
pany makes set- 
tlement on the 
Delaware. 

1655. Conquered 
by the Dutch. 



1632. 
1639. 



1643. 



1643. 

1662. 

1663. 
1663. 



1664. 
1664. 
1681. 
1682. 
1691. 

1732. 



Ralegh, Koanoke Island. 

London Company, Plym- 
outh Company. 
Virginia settled. 
Boundary of London Com- 
j)any changed. Origin of 
Virginia claim. 
Landing of the Pilgrims. 

Plymouth colony. 
Grant to Mason and Gorges. 
Land bought for Massachu- 
setts Bay colony. 
Mason and Gorges divide 
their grant into Maine 
and New Hampshire. 
Maryland patent granted. 
Connecticut I Windsor. 
Hartford. 
Wethersfield. 
New Haven. 
Milford. 
Guilford. 
Stamford. 



constitu- 
tion. 

New Haven 
colony or- 
ganized. 



Rhode Island chartered. 

Connecticut f Connecticut, 
chartered. I New Haven. 

Rhode Island rechartered. 

Carolina I After 1729 North 
patent \ and South Car- 
granted. I olina. 

New Netherland conquered 
and New York founded. 

New Jersey granted to 
Berkeley and Carteret. 

Pennsylvania granted to 
Penn. 

Three counties on the Dela- 
ware bought by Penn. 

Plymouth and Maine (and 
Nova Scotia) united with 
Massachusetts. 

Georgia chartered. 



THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS 

CHAPTER VI 
THE FKENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 

54. The Early French Possessions on our continent may be 
arranged in three great areas: 1. Acadia, 2. New France, 
3. Louisiana, or the basin of the Mississippi River. 

Acadia comprised what is now New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, 
and a part of Maine. It was settled in the early years of the 
seventeenth century at Port Royal (now Annapolis, Nova 
Scotia), at Mount Desert Island, and on the St. Croix River. 

New Prance was the drainage basin of the St. Lawrence 
and the Great Lakes. As far back as 1535 Jacques Cartier 
explored the St. Lawrence River to the site of Montreal. But 
it was not till 1608 that a party under Champlain made the 
first permanent settlement on the river, at Quebec. 

The Prench settlers at once entered into an alliance with 
the Huron and Algonquin Indians, who lived along the St. 
Lawrence River. But these tribes were the bitter enemies of 
the Iroquois, who dwelt in what is now central New York, 
and when, in consequence of this alliance, the Prench were 
summoned to take the warpath, Champlain, with a few fol- 
lowers, went, and on the shore of the lake which now bears 
his name, not far from the site of Ticonderoga, he met and 
defeated the Iroquois tribe of Mohawks in July, 1609. 

The battle was a small affair; but its consequences were 
serious and lasting, for the Iroquois were thenceforth the 
enemies of the Prench, and prevented them from ever coming 
southward and taking possession of the Hudson and the Mo- 

60 



THE FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 



61 



hawk valleys. When, therefore, the French merchants began 
to engage in the fur trade with the Indians, and the French 
priests began their efforts to convert the Indians to Christian- 
ity, they were forced to go westward further and further into 
the interior. 

Their route, instead of being up the St. Lawrence, was up 
the Ottawa River to its head waters, over the portage to Lake 



140 



130 120 110 100 90 




EUROPEAN CLAIMS 

AND 

EXPLORATIONS 

1650 



120 Lon git 



Nipissing, and down its outlet to Georgian Bay, where the 
waters of the Great Lakes lay before them (see map on p. 63). 
They explored these lakes, dotted their shores here and there 
with mission and fur-trading stations, and took possession of 
the country. 

55. The French on the Mississippi. — In the course of these 
explorations the French heard accounts from the Indians of 



62 THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS 

a great river to tlie westward, and in 1672 Father Marquette 
(mar-kef) and Louis Joliet (zho-le-a') were sent by the gov- 
ernor of New France to search for it. They set out, in May, 
1673, from Michilimackinac, a French trading post and mis- 
sion at the foot of Lake Michigan. With live companions, 
in two birch-bark canoes, they paddled up the lake to Greeii 
Bay, entered Fox Eiver, and, dragging the boats through 
its boiling rapids, came to a village where lived the Miamis 
and the Kickapoos. These Indians tried to dissuade them 
from going on; but Marquette was resolute, and on the 
10th of June, 1673, he led his followers over the swamps and 
marshes that separated Fox Eiver from a river which the 
Indian guides assured him flowed into the Mississippi. This 
westward-flowing river he called the Wisconsin, and there 
the guides left him, as he says, "alone, amid that unknown 
country, in the hands of God." 

The little band shoved their canoes boldly out upon the 
river, and for seven days floated slowly downward into the 
unknown. At last, on the 17th of June, they paddled out 
on the bosom of the Mississippi, and, turning their canoes to 
the south, followed the bends and twists of the river, past 
the mouth of the Missouri, past the Ohio, to a point not far 
from the mouth of the Arkansas. There the voyage ended, 
and the party went slowly back to the Lakes. ^ 

56. La Salle finishes the Work of Marquette and Joliet. — The 
discovery of Marquette and Joliet was the greatest of the age. 
Yet five years went by before Eobert de la Salle (lah sahl') set 
forth with authority from the French King " to labor at the 
discovery of the western part of New France," and began the 
attempt to follow the river to the sea. In 1678 La Salle and 
his companions left Canada, and made their way to the shore 
of Lake Erie, where during the winter they built and launched 
the Griffin, the first ship that ever floated on those waters. In 
this they sailed to the mouth of Green Bay, and from there 
pushed on to the Illinois Eiver, to an Indian camp not far 
1 Read Parkman's La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West. 



80 



HUDSON 



T^^X 




HUDSON 

C O M P A N_Y 

1 617 



B A V 






L^iiltSte. Marie 






n^ 



^ 



V. o 






,h-<^y:-'<-:J:>^''^ .•• Ereuch Ftr^^-^^-^"^ 



t.LiSuis *'SoU« 



't.Crevecoeur . 
1680 



seph ^.(ftf/^/ ^>.«0> 



reuch . 
1640 
t.Kationga 



^ 



Kaskaskia 
1605 



O/iio 



^^"^ "^"^-.P^e 



ph5 



^hmori 
Jamestown 




FRENCH CLAIMS, 

MISSIONS.AND TRADING POSTS 
IN MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 

iu 1700 



from 80 Greenwich 



64 THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS 

from the site of Peoria, 111. Just below this camp La Salle 
built Tort Crevecoeur (crav'-ker, a word meaning heart-break, 
vexation). 

Leaving the party there in charge of Henri de Tonty to 
construct another ship, he with five companions went back to 
Canada. On his return he found that Fort Crevecoeur was in 
ruins, and that Tonty and the few men who had been faith- 
ful were gone, he knew not where. In the hope of meeting 
them he pushed on down the Illinois to the Mississippi. To 
go on would have been easy, but he turned back to find Tonty, 
and passed the winter on the St. Joseph River. 

Erom there in December, 1681, he once more set forth, 
crossed the lake to the place where Chicago now is, went up the 
Chicago Eiver and over the portage to the Illinois, and early 
in February floated out on the Mississippi. It was, on that 
day, a surging torrent full of trees and floating ice; but the 
explorers kept on their way and came at last to the shores of 
the Gulf of Mexico. There La Salle took formal possession of 
all the regions drained by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and their 
tributaries, claiming them in the name of France, and naming 
the country thus claimed "Louisiana." The iron will, the 
splendid courage, of La Salle had triumphed over every obsta- 
cle and made him one of the grandest characters in history. 

But his work was far from ended. The valley he had 
explored, the territory he had added to France, must be occu- 
pied, and to occupy it two things were necessary : 1. A colony 
must be planted at the mouth of the Mississippi, to control its 
navigation and shut out the Spaniards. 2. A strong fort must 
be built on the Illinois, to overawe the Indians. 

In order to overawe the Indians, La Salle now hurried back 
to the Illinois River, where, in December, 1682, near the present 
town of Ottawa, on the summit of a cliff now known as 
" Starved Rock," he built a stockade which he called Fort St. 
Louis. In 1684, while on a voyage from France to plant a 
colony on the Mississippi, he missed the mouth and brought 
up on the coast of Texas ; and, landing on the sands of Mata- 



THE FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 



65 



gorda Bay, the colonists built another Fort St. Louis. But 
death rapidly reduced their numbers, and, in their distress, 
they parted. Some remained at the fort and were killed by 
the Indians. Others, led by La Salle, started for the Illinois 
Kiver and reached it; but without their leader, whom they 
had murdered on the way. 

SUMMARY 

1. After the settlement of Quebec (1608) the French began to explore 

the regions lying to the west, discovered the Great Lakes, and heard 
of a great river — the Mississippi. 

2. This river Marquette and Joliet explored from the mouth of the Wis- 

consin to the mouth of the Arkansas (1673). 

3. Then La Salle floated down the Mississippi from the Illinois to the 

Gulf of Mexico, took formal possession of the valley in the name 
of his King, and called it Louisiana (1682). 




Starved Rock 



ClLVrTEK \ II 



TIIK INDIANS 



57. AVheii Euro]^eans 
lirst set foot ou our shores, 
(hey found the country 
already inhabited, and, 
aiU>[)liui;- the uaiue given 
to the uieu ol: the JNew 
W'orhl by C'ohuubus, they 
eaUed these people "In- 
dians." They were not 
" Indians," or natives of 
Asia, but a race by them- 
selves, Avhieh ages before 
the time of Columbus was 
spread over all North and 
South America,. 

Like tluMr descendants 
iu the West to-day, they 
had red or copper-colored 
skins, their eyes aiul long 
straight hair were jet 
black, their faces beardless, and their cheek bones high. 

58. The Villages. — East of the Rocky Mountains the lu- 
dians lived in villages, often covering several acres in area, 
and surrounded by stockades of two and even three rows of 
posts. 'The stockade was pierced with loopholes, aud provided 
with platforms on which were piles of stones for the defenders 
to hurl on the heads of their enemies. Sometimes the struc- 

0(i 




A typical Indian 



'11 IK INI) FANS 



67 



turns which forrnod thn villaj^c w <m(; wij^^wains — rudo striicturos 
iiiade by driving pohjs into 1lif; ground in :i circle, drawing 
their tops near together, and tlicn (;ovci-ing 
th(nn with bark or skins. Soni(jtinics tlio 
dwf^llings liad rudfjly fi-anuid sides and 
roofs covered witli l;iyei\s of." elm baik. 
L'siially these stnu^tures were liite«jn 
or tw(5nty feet wide by 100 feet long. 
At each end was a door. Along each 
side W(ire ten or twelve stalls, in each 
of which lived a family, so that one 
house held twenty or more fam- 
ilies. Down the middle at 
regular intervals were fire 
pits where the i'ood was 
cooked, the smoke escaping 
through holes in tluj roof.^ 

59. Clans and Tribes. — All 
the famili(*s living in such a house 
traced descent from a common fejmale 
ancestor, and formed a clan. Each 
clan had its own name, — usually that of some animal, as the 
Wolf, the Bear, or the Turtle, — its own sachem or civil magis- 
trate, and its own war chiefs, and owned all the food and all 
the property, except weapons and ornaments, in common. A 
number of such clans made a tribe, which had one language 
and was governed by a council of the clan sachems. 




Buffalo-skin lodge 




i^-^Ay 













Seneca long house 
^ Read rarkmaii'.s Conspiracy of Pontiar, Vol. 1., pp. 17, 18. 



68 



THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS 



60. The Three Indian Races. — With slight exceptions, the 
tribes living east of the Mississippi are divided, by those who 
have studied their languages, into three great groups : 

1. The Muskhogees, who lived south of the Tennessee River 

and comprised the Creek, the Seminole, the Choctaw, and 
the Chickasaw tribes. 

2. The Iroquoian group, which occupied the country from the 

Delaware and the Hudson to and beyond the St. Lawrence 
and Lakes Ontario and Erie, besides isolated tracts in 
North Carolina and Tennessee. The chief tribes were 
the Iroquois proper, — forming a confederacy in central 
New York known as the Five Nations (Senecas, Cayugas, 
Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks), — the Hurons, the 
Eries, the Cherokees, and the Tuscaroras. 

3. The Algonquian group, which occupied the rest of what is 

now the United States east of the Mississippi, besides 
the larger part of Canada. In this group were the Mohe- 
gans, Pequots, and Narragansetts of New Eng- /^^ land 
the Delawares ; the Powhatans of Vir- 
ginia; the Shawnees of the 
Ohio valley, and many 
others living around the 
Great Lakes. Moccasin 

61. Weapons and Implements and Clothing. — All of these 
tribes had made some progress towards civilization. They 

used pottery and ornamental pipes of clay. They 

raised beans and squashes, pumpkins, tobacco, 

and maize, or Indian corn, which they ground 

to meal by rubbing between two stones. For 

hunting they had bows, arrows with stone 

heads, hatchets of flint, and spears. In 

summer they went almost naked. In 

winter they wore clothing made from 

the skins of fur-bearing animals and 

Flint hatchet ^s«ry the hides of buffalo and deer. For 





THE INDIANS 



69 



navigating streams and rivers, lakes and bays, they con- ^^ 
structed canoes of birch bark sewed togetlier with 
thongs of deerskin and smeared at the joints with 
sprnce-tree gum. 

62. Traits of Character Living an outdoor life, ^^^^ 

and depending for daily food not so much on the 

maize they raised as on the hsh they caught and 

the animals they killed, the Indians were 

most expert woodsmen. They were swift 

of foot, quick-witted, keen-sighted, and 

most patient of hunger, fatigue, and cold. 

White men were amazed at the rapidity 

with which the Indian followed the 

most obscure trail over the most difficult 

ground, at the perfection with 

which he imitated the bark of the 

wolf, the hoot of the owl, the call 

of the moose, and at the catlike 

tread with which he walked over beds of autumn leaves to 

the side of the grazing deer. 

Courage and fortitude he possessed in the highest 

degree. Yet with his bravery were associated all 

the Tices, all the dark and crooked ways, which 

are the re- ,^y sort of the cowardly and the 




Ornamental pipe 



weak. 





Quiver, with bows and arrows 
McM. Hist. — 5 



He was treacherous, revengeful, 
and cruel beyond description. Much 
as he loved war (and war was his 
chief occupation), the fair and open 
fight had no charm for him. To his 
mind it was madness to take the scalp 
of an enemy at the risk of his own, 
when he might waylay him in an am- 
bush or shoot him with an arrow from 
behind a tree. He was never so happy 
as when, at the dead of night, he 
roused his sleeping victims with an 



70 THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS 

unearthly yell and massacred them by the light of their burn- 
ing home. 

63. The French and the Indians. — The ways in which French 
and English colonists acted towards the Indian are highly char- 
acteristic, and account for much in our history. 

From the day when Champlain, in 1609, joined his Huron- 
Algonquin neighbors and went with them on the warpath 
against the Iroquois, the French held to the policy of making 
friends with the Indians. ISTo pains were spared to win them 
to the cause of France. They were flattered, petted, treated 
with ceremonial respect, and became the companions, as the 
women often became the wives, of the Frenchmen. Much was 
expected of this mingling of races. It was supposed that the 
Indian would be won over to civilization and Christianity. But 
the Frenchmen were won over to the Indians, and adopted In- 
dian ways of life. They lived in wigwams, wore Indian dress, 
decorated their long hair with eagle feathers, and made their 
faces hideous with vermilion, ocher, and soot. 

64. Coureurs de Bois. — There soon grew up in this way a 
class of half-civilized vagrants, who ranged the woods in true 
Indian style, and gained a living by guiding the canoes of 
fur traders along the rivers and lakes of the interior. Stimu- 
lated by the profits of the fur trade, these men pushed their 
traffic to the most distant tribes, spreading French guns, 
French hatchets, beads, cloth, tobacco and brandy, and French 
influence over the whole Northwest. Where the trader and 
the coureur de hois went, the priest and the soldier followed, 
and soon mission houses and forts were established at all the 
chief passes and places suited to control the Indian trade. 

65. The English and the Indians. ^ How, meantime, did the 
English act toward the Indians ? In the first place, nothing 
led them to form close relationship with the tribes. The fur 
trade — the source of Canadian prosperity — and the zeal of 
priests eager for the conversion of the heathen, which sent the 
traders, the coureurs de bois, and the priests from tribe to tribe 
and from the Atlantic halfway to the Pacific, did not appeal 



THE INDIANS 71 

to the English colonists. Farming and commerce were the 
sources of their wealth. Their priests and missionaries were 
content to labor with the Indians near at hand. 

In the second place, the policy of the French towards the 
Indians, while founded on trade, was directed by one central 
government. The policy of the English was directed by each 
colony, and was of as many kinds as there were colonies. No 
English frontier exhibited such a mingling of white men and 
red as was common wherever the French went. Among the 
English there were fur traders, but no coiireurs de hois. Scorn 
on the one side and hatred on the other generally marked the 
intercourse between the English and the Indians. One bright 
exception must indeed be made. Penn was a broad-minded 
lover of his kind, a man of most enlightened views on gov- 
ernment and human rights ; and in the colony planted by him 
there was made a serious effort to treat the Indian as an equal. 
But the day came when men not of his faith dealt with the 
Indians in true English fashion. 

Kemembering this difference of treatment, we shall the better 
understand how it happened that the French could sprinkle 
the West with little posts far from Quebec and surrounded 
by the fiercest of tribes, while the English could only with 
difficulty defend their frontier.^ 

66. Early Indian Wars. — Again and again this frontier was 
attacked. In 1636 the Pequots, who dwelt along the Thames 
Kiver in Connecticut, made war on the settlers in the Con- 
necticut River valley towns. Men were waylaid and scalped, 
or taken prisoners and burned at the stake. Determined to 
put an end to this, ninety men from the Connecticut towns, 
with twenty from Massachusetts and some Mohegan Indians, 
in 1637 marched against the marauders. They found the 
Pequots within a circular stockade near the present town of 
Stonington, where of 400 warriors all save five were killed. 

1 A fine account of the Indians, and the French and English ways of 
treating them, is given in Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac, Vol. I., 
pp. 16-25, 41-45, 46-56, 64-80. 



72 THE FllENCH AND THE INDIANS 

67. King Philip's War. — During nearly forty years not a 
tribe in all New England dared rise against the white men. 
But in 1675 trouble began again. The settlers were steadily 
crowding the Indians off their lands. No lands were taken 
without payment, yet the sales were far from being voluntary. 
A new generation of Indians, too, had grown up, and, heedless 
of the lesson taught their fathers, the Narragansetts, Nip- 
mucks, and Wampanoags, led by King Philip and Canonchet, 
rose upon the English. A dreadful war followed. When it 
ended, in 1678, the three tribes were annihilated. Hardly any 
Indians save the friendly Mohawks were left in New England. 
But of ninety English towns, forty had been the scene of fire 
and slaughter, and twelve had been destroyed utterly. 

68. The Iroquois. — Elsewhere on the frontier a happier rela- 
tion existed with the Indians. The Iroquois of central New 
York were the fiercest and most warlike Indians of the 
Atlantic coast. But the fight with Champlain, in 1609, by 
turning them into implacable enemies of the French, had 
rendered them all the more tolerant of the Dutch and the 
English, while their complete conquest and subjugation of the 
Delawares, or Lenni Lenape, prepared the way for the easy 
settlement of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 

69. Penn and the Lenni Lenape. — These Indians were Algon- 
quian, and lived along the Delaware River and its tributaries. 
But early in the seventeenth century they had been reduced 
to vassalage by the Five Nations, had been forbidden to carry 
arms, and had been forced to take the name of Women. ^ 

When the Dutch and Swedes began their settlements on the 
South River, and when Penn, in 1683, made a treaty with the 
Delawares, the settlers had to deal with peaceful Indians. No 
horrid wars mark the early history of Pennsylvania. 

70. The Powhatans in Virginia. — Much the same may be 
said of the Virginia tribes. They were far from friendly, and 
had they been as fierce and warlike as the northern tribes, 
neither the skill of John Smith, nor the marriage of Poca- 

1 Read Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac, Vol. I., pp. 30-32, 80-82. 



THE INDIANS 



73 




Powhatan Indians at work i 

hontas (the daughter of Powhatan) with John Rolfe, nor 
fear of the English muskets, would have saved Jamestown. 

On the other hand, the destruction of the tribes in New 
England and the feud between the French and the Iroquois 
saved New England. Eor the time had now come for the 
opening of the long struggle between the French and the Eng- 
lish for the ownership of the continent. 

SUMMARY 



3. 



The inhabitants of the New World at the time of its discovery, by- 
mistake called Indians, were barbarians, lived in rude, frail houses, 
and used weapons and implements inferior to those of the whites. 

The Indian tribes of eastern North America are mostly divided into 
three great groups : Muskhogean, Iroquoian, and Algonquian. 

In general, the French made the Indians their friends, while the Eng- 
lish drove them westward and treated them as an inferior race. 



1 From a model. 













pf' 



> . ^r.h/ \ 1701 t_r^ 

f \l679/\^ \Fort^ 

1700 rA- 



i\NW 



'^'I'^^iS'^t^^^''^" 



s 



'nf%%;^irs 



t.^aV 



ri\u»^ 



,t.s* 



i\)tttS 



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EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA 

71. Louisiana, or the Mississippi Basin. — The landing of La 
Salle on the coast of Texas, and the building of Fort St. Louis 
of Texas, gave the French a claim to the coast as far south- 
ward as a point halfway between the fort and the nearest 
Spanish settlement, in Mexico. At that point was the Rio 
Grande, a good natural boundary. On the French maps, there- 
fore, Louisiana extended from the Rocky Mountains and the 
Rio G-rande on the west, to the Alleghany Mountains on the 
east, and from the Gulf of Mexico on the south, to New France 
on the north. This confined the English colonies to a narrow 
strip between the Alleghany Mountains and the Atlantic 
Ocean. As the colonies were growing in population, and as 
the charters of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, and Caro- 
lina gave them great stretches of territory in the Mississippi 
valley, it was inevitable that, sooner or later, a bitter contest 
for possession of the country should take place between the 
French and the English in America. 

The contest began in 1689, and ended in 1763, and may easily 
be divided into two periods : 1. That from 1689 to 1748, when 
the struggle was for Acadia and New France. 2. That from 
175*4 to 1763, when the struggle was not only for New France, 
but for Louisiana also. 

72. The Struggle for Acadia and New France; "King Wil- 
liam's War." — In 1688-89 there was a revolution in England, 
in the course of which James II. was driven from his throne, 
and William and Mary, his nephew and daughter, were seated 
on it. James took refuge in France, and when Louis XIV. 

76 



NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA 77 

attempted to restore him, a great European war followed, and 
of course the colonists of the two countries were very soon 
lighting each other. As the quarrel did not arise on this side 
of the ocean, the English colonists called it " King William's 
War " ; but on our continent it was really the beginning of a 
long struggle to determine whether France or England should 
ride North America. 

The French recognized this at once, and sent over a very 
able soldier — Count Frontenac — with orders to conquer New 
York ; but the colony was saved by the Iroquois, who in the 
summer of 1689 began a war of their own against the French, 
laid siege to Montreal, and roasted French captives under its 
walls. Frontenac was compelled to put off his attack till 1690, 
when in the dead of winter a band of French and Indians 
burned Schenectady, N.Y. Salmon Falls in New Hampshire 
was next laid waste (1690), and Fort Loyal, where Portland, 
Me., is, was taken and destroyed. A little later Exeter, 
N.H., was attacked. The boldness and suddenness of these 
fearful massacres so alarmed the people exposed to them that 
in May, 1690, delegates from Massachusetts, Plymouth, Con- 
necticut, and New York met at New York city to devise a 
plan of attack on the French. Now, at the opening of the 
war, there were three French strongholds in America. These 
were Montreal and Quebec in Canada, and Port Koyal in 
Acadia. In 1690 a Massachusetts fleet led by Sir William 
Phips destroyed Port Royal. It was decided, therefore, to 
send another fleet under Phips to take Quebec, while troops 
from New York and Connecticut marched against Montreal. 
Both expeditions were failures, and for seven years the French 
and Indians ravaged the frontier. In 1692 York, in Maine, 
was visited and a third of the inhabitants killed. In 1694 
Castine was taken and a hundred persons scalped and toma- 
hawked. At Durham, in New Hampshire, prisoners were 
burned alive. Groton, in Massachusetts, was next visited; 
but the boldest of all was the massacre, in 1697, at Haverhill, 
a town not thirty-five miles from Boston. In 1696, Frontenac, 



78 THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS 

at the head of a great array of Canadians, coureurs de hois, and 
Indians, invaded the country of the Onondagas, and leveled 
their fortified town to the earth. 

73. The Struggle for Acadia and New France; "Queen Anne's 
War." — In 1697 the war ended with tlie treaty of Byswick, 
and "King William's War" came to a close in America with 
nothing gained and much lost on each side. The peace, how- 



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ever, did not last long, for in 1701 England and France were 
again fighting. As William died in 1702, and was succeeded 
by his sister-in-law Anne, the struggle which followed in Amer- 
ica was called " Queen Anne's War." Again Port Eoyal was 
captured (1710) ; again an expedition went against Quebec and 
failed (1711) ; and again, year after year, the French and In- 
dians swept along the frontier of New England, burning towns 
and slaughtering and torturing the inhabitants. At last the 
treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, ended the strife, and the first signs 



NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA 79 

of English conquest in America were visible, for the Frencn 
gave up Acadia and acknowledged the claims of the English 
to Newfoundland and the country around Hudson Bay. The 
name Acadia was changed by the conquerors to Nova Scotia. 
Port Eoyal, never again to be parted with, they called Annap- 
olis, in honor of the Queen.^ 

74. The French take Possession of the Mississippi Valley ; 
the Chain of Forts. — The peace made at Utrecht was unbroken 
for thirty years. But this long period was, on the part of the 
French in America, at least, a time of careful preparation for 
the coming struggle for possession of the valleys of the Missis- 
sippi, the Ohio, and the Lakes. In the Mississippi valley most 
elaborate preparations for defense were already under way. 
No sooner did the treaty of Ryswick end the first French war 
than a young naval officer named Iberville applied to the King 
for leave to take out an expedition and found a colony at the 
mouth of the Mississippi, just as La Salle had attempted to do. 
Permission was readily given, and in 1698 Iberville sailed with 
two ships from France, and in February, 1699, entered Mobile 
Bay. Leaving his fleet at anchor, he set off with a party in 
small boats in search of the great river. He coasted along the 
shore, entered the Mississippi through one of its three mouths, 
and went up the river till he came to an Indian village, where 
the chief gave him a letter which Tonty, thirteen years before, 
when in search of La Salle, had written and left in the crotch 
of a tree. 

Iberville now knew that he was on the Mississippi ; but hav- 
ing seen no spot along its low banks suitable for the site of a 
city, he went back and led his colony to Biloxi Bay, and there 
settled it. Thus when the eighteenth century opened there 
were in all Louisiana but two French settlements — that 
founded on the Illinois River by La Salle, and that begun by 
Iberville at Biloxi. But the occupation of Louisiana was now 
the established policy of France, and hardly a year went by 
without one or more forts appearing somewhere in the valley. 
1 Read Parkman's A Half-century of Conflict, Vol. I., pp. 1-149. 



80 THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS 

Before 1725 came, Mobile Bay was occupied, New Orleans was 
founded, and Forts Eosalie, Toulouse, Tombeckbee, Natchi- 
toclies, Assumption, and Chartres were erected. Along the 
Lakes, Detroit had been founded, Niagara was built in 1726, 
and in 1731 a band of Frenchmen, entering New York, put up 
Crown Point.^ 

The meaning of this chain of forts stretching from New 
Orleans and Mobile to Lake Champlain and Montreal, was 
that the French were determined to shut the English out of 
'the valley of the Mississippi, and to keep them away from the 
shores of the Great Lakes. But they were also determined at 
the first chance to reconquer Annapolis and Nova Scotia, which 
they had lost by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. As a very 
important step towards the accomplishment of this purpose, 
the French selected a harbor on the southeast coast of Cape 
Breton Island, and there built Louisburg, a fortress so strong 
that the French officers boasted that it could be defended by a 
garrison of women. 

75. The Struggle for New France; "King George's War." — 
Such was the situation in America when (in March, 1744) France 
declared war on England and began what in Europe was called 
the " War of the Austrian Succession " ; but in our country it 
was known as "King George's War," because George 11. was 
then King of England. The French, with their usual prompt- 
ness, rushed down and burned the little English post of Canso, 
in Nova Scotia, carried off the garrison, and attacked Annap- 
olis, where they were driven off. That Nova Scotia could be 
saved, seemed hopeless. Nevertheless, Governor Shirley of 
Massachusetts determined to make the attempt, and that the 
King might know the exact situation he sent to London, with 
a dispatch, an officer named Captain Eyal, who had been taken 
prisoner at Canso and afterwards released on parole.^ 

1 Parkman's A Half-century of Conflict, Vol. I., pp. 288-314. For the 
French posts see map on pp. 74, 75. 

2 The reception of that officer well illustrates the gross ignorance of 
America and American affairs which then existed in England. When the 



NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA 81 

Although Shirley applied to the King for help with which to 
defend Nova Scotia, he knew full well that the burden of de- 
fense would fall on the colonies. And with that determination 
and persistence which always brings success he labored hard 
to persuade New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island to 
join with Massachusetts in an effort to capture Louisburg. It 
would be delightful to tell how he overcame all difficulties; 
how the young men rallied on the call for troops ; how at 
the end of March, 1745, 4000 of them in a hundred trans- 
ports and accompanied by fourteen armed ships set sail, fol- 
lowed by the prayers of all New England, and after a siege of 
six weeks took the fortress on the 17th of June, 1745. But the 
story is too long.^ It is enough to know that the victory was 
hailed with delight on both sides of the Atlantic, but that when 
peace came, in 1748, the British government was still so blind 
to the struggle for North America which had been going on for 
fifty years, that Louisburg was restored to the French. 

76. The French on the Allegheny River; the Buried Plates. 
— With Louisburg back in their possession and no territory 
lost, the French went on more vigorously than ever with their 
preparations to shut the British out of the Mississippi val- 
ley; and as but one highway to the valley, the Ohio E-iver, 
was still unguarded, the governor of Canada, in 1749, dis- 
patched Celoron de Bienville with a band of men in twenty- 
three birch-bark canoes to take formal possession of the valley. 
Paddling up the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, they carried 
their canoes across to Lake Erie, and, skirting the southeastern 
shore, they landed and crossed to Chautauqua Lake, down which 
and its outlet they floated to the Allegheny River. Once on 

Duke of Newcastle, who was prime minister, read the dispatch, he ex- 
claimed : "Oh, yes — yes — to be sure. Amiapolis must be defended — 
troops must be sent to Annapolis. Pray where is Annapolis ? Cape 
Breton an island ! Wonderful ! Show it me on the map. So it is, sure 
enough. My dear sir [to Captain Ryal], you always bring us good news. 
I must go and tell the King that Cape Breton is an island.'' 

1 Read Samuel Adams Drake's Taking of Louisburg ; Parkman's A 
Half-century of Conflict, Vol. II., pp. 78-161. 



82 



THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS 



the Allegheny, the ceremony of taking possession began. The 
men were drawn up, and Louis XV. was proclaimed king of all 
the region drained by the Ohio. The arms of France stamped 
on a sheet of tin were nailed to a tree, at the foot of which a 
lead plate was buried in the ground. On the plate was an in- 
scription claiming the Ohio, and all the streams that run into 

TRANSLATION OF THE EN- 
TIRE INSCRIPTION 



In the year 1749, during the reign 
of Louis XV., King of France, we, 
C^loron, commander of a detachment 
sent by the Marquis de la Gallisso- 
ni^re, commander in chief of New 
France, to restore tranquillity in some 
savage villages of these districts, have 
buried this plate at the confluence of 
the Ohio and . . . this . . . near 
the river Ohio, alias Beautiful River, 
as a monument of our having re- 
taken possession of the said river 
Ohio and of those that fall into the 
same, and of all the lands on both 
sides as far as the sources of the 
said rivers, as well as of those of 
which preceding kings have enjoyed 
possession, partly by the force of 
arms, partly by treaties, especially 
by those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and 
Aix-la-Chapelle. 




Half of one of the lead plates 



it, in the name of the King of France. A second plate was 
buried below the mouth of French Creek ; a third near the 
mouth of Wheeling Creek ; and a fourth at the mouth of the 
Muskingum, where half a century later it was found protrud- 
ing from the river bank by a party of boys while bathing. 
Yet another was unearthed at the mouth of the Great Kanawha 
by a freshet, and was likewise found by a boy while playing 

1 Now owned by the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. 



NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA 83 

at the water's edge. The last plate was hidden where the 
Great Miami joins the Ohio; and this done, Celoron crossed 
Ohio to Lake Erie and went back to Montreal.^ 

77. The French build Forts on the Allegheny. — This formal 
taking possession of the valleys of the Allegheny and the Ohio 
was all well enough in its way ; but the French knew that if 
they really intended to keep out the British they must depend 
on forts and troops, and not on lead plates. To convince the 
French King of this, required time ; so that it was not till 1752 
that orders were given to fortify the route taken by Celoron 
in 1749. The party charged with this duty repaired to the 
little peninsula where is now the city of Erie, and there built 
a log fort which they called Presque Isle. Having done this, 
they cut a road twenty miles long, to the site of Waterford, 
Pa., and built Fort Le Boeuf, and later one at Venango, the 
present site of the town of Franklin. 

78. Washington's First Public Service. — The arrival of the 
French in western Pennsylvania alarmed and excited no one 
so much as Governor Robert Dinwiddle of Virginia. He had 
two good reasons for his excitement. In the first place, Vir- 
ginia, because of the interpretation she placed on her charter 
of 1609, claimed to own the Allegheny valley (see p. 33). 
In the second place, the governor and a number of Virginia 
planters were deeply interested in a great land company 
called the Ohio Company, to which the King of England had 
given 500,000 acres lying along the Ohio River between the 
Monongahela and the Kanawha rivers, a region which the 
French claimed, and toward which they were moving. 

As soon, therefore, as Dinwiddle heard that the French were 
really building forts in the upper Allegheny valley, he deter- 
mined to make a formal demand for their withdrawal, and 
chose as his messenger George Washington, then a young man 
of twenty-one, and adjutant general of the Virginia militia. 

1 Read T. J. Chapman's Tlie French in the Allegheny Valley, pp. 9-23, 
187-197 ; Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. I., pp. 30-62; Winsor's 
The Mississippi Basin, pp. 252-255. 



84 



THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS 



Washington's instructions bade him 
go to Logstown, on the Ohio, find out 
all he could as to the whereabouts of 
the French, and then proceed to the 
commanding officer, deliver the letter 
of Dinwiddie, and demand an answer. 
He was especially charged to ascer- 
tain how many French forts had been 
erected, how many soldiers there were 
in each, how far apart the posts were, 
and if they were to be supported from 
Quebec.^ 

With that promptness which dis- 
tinguished him during his whole life, 
Washington set out on his perilous 
journey the very day he received his 
instructions, and made his way first 
to Logstown, and then to Fort Le 
Boeuf, where he delivered Governor 
Dinwiddle's letter to 
the French command- 
ant. The reply of Saint- 
Pierre — for that was 
the name of the French 
commandant — was 
that he would send the 
letter of Dinwiddie to 
the governor of Canada, 
the Marquis Duquesne 
(doo-kan'), and that, in the meantime, he would hold the fort. 

79. Fort Duquesne. — When Dinwiddie read the answer of 
Saint-Pierre, he saw clearly that the time had come to act. 
The French were in force on the upper Allegheny. Unless 

1 Read T. J. Chapman's The French in the Alleghemj Valley, pp. 23- 
47; Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. I., pp. 128-lGl ; Lodge's 
George Washington, pp. 52-69. 




The French and the JEnglish forts 



NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA 



85 



something was done to drive them out, they would soon be at 
the forks of the Ohio, and once they were there, the splendid 
tract of the Ohio Company would be lost forever. Without 
a moment's delay he decided to take possession of the forks 
of the Ohio, and raised two companies of militia of 100 men 
each. A trader named William Trent was in command of one 
of the companies, and that no time should be lost, he, with 
forty men, hurried forward, and, February 17, 1754, drove the 
first stake of a stockade that was to surround a fort on the 
site of the city of Pittsburg. While the English were still 
at work on their fort, April 17, 1754, a body of French and 
Indians came down from Le Boeuf, and bade them leave the 
valley. Trent was away, and the working party was in com- 
mand of an ensign named Ward, who, as resistance was use- 
less, surrendered, and was allowed to march off with his men. 
The French then finished the fort Trent had begun, and called 
it Fort Duquesne, after the governor of Canada. 

80. *' Join or Die." — Meantime the legislature of Virginia 
voted £10,000 for the defense of the Ohio valley, and promised 
a land bounty to every man who 
would volunteer to fight the French 
and Indians. Joshua Frye was 
made colonel, and Washington lieu- 
tenant colonel of the troops thus 
to be raised. As some time must 
elapse before the ranks could be 
filled, Washington took seventy- 
five men and (in March, 1754) set off to help Trent ; but he had 
not gone far on his way when Ensign Ward met him (where 
Cumberland, Md., now is) and told him all about the surrender. 
Accounts of the affair were at once sent to the governors of 
Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. In publishing one of 
these in the Pennsylvania Gazette, Franklin inserted the above 
picture at the top of the account.^ 

1 There is an old superstition, then very generally believed, that if one 
cuts a snake in pieces and allows the pieces to touch, the snake will not 




86 THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS 

81. Albany Plan of Union. — The picture was apt for the 

following reason. The Lords of Trade in London ^ had ordered 
the colonies to send delegates to Albany to make a treaty with 
the Iroquois Indians, and to this congress Franklin purposed 
to submit a plan for union against the French. The plan 
drawn up by the congress was not approved by the colonies, 
so the scheme of union came to naught. 

82. Washington's Expedition. — Meanwhile great events were 
happening in the west. When Washington met Ensign Ward 
at Cumberland and heard the story of the surrender, he was at 
a loss just what to do; but knowing that he was expected to do 
something, he decided to go to a storehouse which the Ohio 
Company had built at the mouth of a stream called Kedstone 
Creek in southwestern Pennsylvania. Pushing along, cutting 
as he went the first road that ever led down to the valley of 
the Mississippi from the Atlantic slope, he reached a narrow 
glade called the Great Meadows and there began to put up 
a breastwork which he named Fort Necessity. While so en- 
gaged news came that the French were near. Washington 
thereupon took a few men, and, coming suddenly on the 
French, killed or captured them all save one. Among the 
dead was Jumonville, the leader of the party. Well satisfied 
with this exploit, Washington pushed on with his entire force 
towards the Ohio. But, hearing that the French were ad- 
vancing, he fell back to Fort Necessity, and there awaited 
them. He did not wait long; for the French and Indians 
came down in great force, and on July 4, 1754, forced him, 
after a brave resistance, to surrender. He was allowed to 
march out with drums beating and flags flying.^ 

83. The French and Indian War. — Thus was begun what the 
colonists called the French and Indian War, but what was 

die, but will live and become whole again. By this picture Franklin 
meant that unless the colonies joined for defense against the French they 
would die ; that is, be conquered. 

1 See p. 107. ^ Lodge's George Washington, pp. 69-74 ; Winsor's 

The Mississippi Basin, pp. 294-315. 



NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA 87 

really a struggle between the French and the British for the 
possession of America. Knowing it to be such, both sides 
made great preparations for the contest. The French stood on 
the defensive. The British made the attack, and early in 1755 
sent over one of their ablest officers. Major General Edward 
Braddock, to be commander in chief in America. He sum- 
moned the colonial governors to meet him at Alexandria, Va., 
where a plan for a campaign was agreed on. 

84. Plan for the War. — Vast stretches of dense and almost 
impenetrable forest then separated the colonies of the two 
nations, but through this forest were three natural highways 
of communication: 1. Lake George, Lake Champlain, and 
the St. Lawrence Kiver. 2. The Hudson, the Mohawk, Lake 
Ontario, and the Niagara Eiver. 3. The Potomac to Fort 
Cumberland, and through the forest to Fort Duquesne.^ 

It was decided, therefore, to have four expeditions. 

1. One was to go north from New York to Lake Champlain, 

take the French fort at Crown Point, and move 
against Quebec. 

2. Another was to sail from New England and make such a 

demonstration against the French towns to the north- 
east, as would prevent the French in that quarter going 
off to defend Quebec and Crown Point. 

3. The third was to start from Albany, go up the Mohawk, 

and down the Oswego Eiver to Lake Ontario, and along 
its shores to the Niagara Eiver. 

4. The fourth was to go from Fort Cumberland across Penn- 

sylvania to Fort Duquesne. 

85. Braddock's Defeat, July 9, 1755. — Braddock took com- 
mand of this last expedition and made Washington one of his 
aids. For a while he found it impossible to move his army, for 
in Virginia horses and wagons were very scarce, and without 
them he could not carry his baggage or drag his cannon. At 
last Benjamin Franklin, then deputy postmaster-general of the 

1 See maps on pp. 75, 84, 133. 



88 THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS 

colonies, persuaded the farmers of Pennsylvania, who had 
plenty, to rent the wagons and horses to the general. 

All this took time, so that it was June before the army left 
Eort Cumberland and literally began to cut its way through 
the woods to Fort Duquesne.^ The march was slow, but all 
went well till the troops had crossed the Monongahela River 
and were but eight miles from the fort, when suddenly the 
advance guard came face to face with an army of Indians and 
French. The Indians and French instantly hicj. in the bushes 
and behind trees, and poured an incessant fire into the ranks 
of the British. They, too, would gladly have fought in Indian 
fashion. But Braddock thought this cowardly and would not 
allow them to get behind trees, so they stood huddled in 
groups, a fine mark for the Indians, till so many were killed 
that a retreat had to be ordered. Then they fle,d, and had it 
not been for Washington and his Virginians, who covered their 
flight, they would probably have been killed to a man.^ 

Braddock was wounded just as the retreat began, and died a 
few days later. 

86. The Other Expeditions. — The expedition against Niagara 
was a failure. The officer in command did not take his army 
further than Oswego on Lake Ontario. 

The expedition against Crown Point was partially success- 
ful, and a stubborn battle was fought and a victory won over 
the French on the shores of that beautiful sheet of water which 
the English ever after called Lake George in honor of the King. 

87. War declared. — Up to this time all the fighting had been 
done along the frontier in America. But in May, 1756, Great 
Britain formally declared war against France. The French at 
once sent over Montcalm,* the very ablest Frenchman that ever 
commanded on this continent, and there followed two years of 

1 The line of march is shown on the map, p. 84. 

2 Read Parkman's Montco.lm and Wolfe, Vol. I., Chap. 7, pp. 162- 
187 ; T. J. Chapman's The French in the Allegheny Valley, pp. 60-72 ; 
Sargeant's History of Braddock' s Expedition. 

3 Read Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. I., pp. 318-380. 



NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA 89 

warfare disastrous to the British. Montcalm took and burned 
Oswego, won over the Indians to the cause of France, and 
was about to send a strong fleet to attack New England, 
when, toward the end of 1757, William Pitt was made virtu- 
ally (though not in name) Prime Minister of England. 

William Pitt was one of the greatest Englishmen that ever 
lived. He could see exactly what to do, and he could pick 
out exactly the right man to do it. No wonder, then, that as 
soon as he came into power the British began to gain victories. 

88. The Victories of 1758. — Once more the French were 
attacked at their three vulnerable points, and this time with 
success. In 1758 Louisburg surrendered to Amherst and 
Boscawen. In that same year Washington captured Fort 
Duquesne, which, in honor of the great Prime Minister, was 
called Fort Pitt. A provincial officer named Bradstreet de- 
stroyed Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario. This was a heavy 
blow to the French; for with Fort Frontenac gone and Fort 
Duquesne in English hands, the Ohio was cut off from Quebec. 

An attack on Ticonderoga, however, was repulsed by Mont- 
calm with dreadful loss to the English. 

89. The Victories of 1 759 ; Wolfe. — But the defeat was only 
temporary. At the siege of Louisburg a young officer named 
James Wolfe had greatly distinguished himself, and in return 
for this was selected by Pitt to command an expedition to 
Quebec. The previous attempts to reach that city had been 
by way of Lake George. The expedition of Wolfe sailed up 
the St. Lawrence, and landed below the city. 

Quebec stands on the summit of a high hill with precipitous 
sides, and was then the most strongly fortified city in America. 
To take it seemed almost impossible. But the resolution of 
Wolfe overcame every obstacle : on the night of September 
12, 1759, he led his troops to the foot of the cliff, climbed the 
heights, and early in the morning had his army drawn up in 
battle array on the Plains of Abraham, as the plateau behind 
the city was called. There a great battle was fought between 
the French, led by Montcalm, and the British, led by Wolfe. 



90 



THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS 




90 Longitude 



West 80 from 



The British triumphed, and Quebec fell ; but Wolfe and Mont- 
calm were among the dead.^ 

Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been captured a few weeks 
before. Montreal was taken in 1760, and the long struggle 
between the French and the English in America ended in the 
defeat of the French. The war dragged on in Europe till 
1763, when peace was made at Paris. 

90. France driven out of America. — With all the details of 
the treaty we are not concerned. It is enough for us to 

1 Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, Chaps. 25-27; A. Wright's Life of 
Wolfe ; Sloan's French War and the Revolution, Chaps. 6-9. 



NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA 91 

know that France divided her possessions on this continent 
between Great Britain and Spain. To Great Britain she gave 
Canada and Cape Breton, and all the islands save two in the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence. Entering what is now the United States, 
she drew a line down the middle of the Mississippi Eiver from 
its source to a point just north of New Orleans. To Great 
Britain she surrendered all her territory east of this line. To 
Spain she gave all her possessions to the west of this line, 
together with the city of New Orleans. But Great Britain, 
during the war, had taken Havana from Spain. To get this 
back, Spain now gave up Florida in exchange. 

At the end of the war with France, Great Britain thus found 
herself in possession of Canada and all that part of the United 
States which lies between the Atlantic and the Mississijjpi, the 
little strip at the mouth of the river alone excepted. 

SUMMARY 

We have now come to the time when the third European power was 
driven from our country. The first was Sweden when New Sweden was 
captured by the Dutch. The second was Holland when New Netherland 
was captured by the English. The third was France. 

1. The struggle for the French possessions in America may be divided 

into two periods : A. That from 1689 to 1748, when the contest was 
for Acadia and New France. B. That from 1754 to 1763, when the 
struggle was for Louisiana as well as New France. 

2. The first war, " King William's," was indecisive, but the second, 

" Queen Anne's," ended (1713) in the transfer of Acadia to England. 

3. After the treaty of Utrecht, 1713, the French began seriously to take 

possession of the Mississippi valley, and began a chain of forts to 
stretch from New Orleans and Mobile to Montreal. 

4. "King George's War" interrupted this work for a few years (1744- 

1748), but in 1749 C^loron was sent to bury plates in the valleys of 
the Allegheny and Ohio and claim them in the name of France. 

5. The next step after claiming the valleys was to take armed possession, 

and in 1752 the French began to build forts. 

6. This alarmed the governor of Virginia, who sent Washington to bid 

the French leave the Allegheny valley. When they refused, troops 
were sent to build a fort on the site of what is now Pittsburg ; but 
. these men, under Trent and Ward, were driven away, as were also 
the reenforcements under Washington (1754). 
McM. Hist. — 6 



92 



THE FRENCH AND THE INDIANS 



7. Braddock (with Washington) was next sent against the French, who 

had built Fort Duquesne. He was surprised by the Indians (July 9, 
1755), defeated, and killed. 

8. The " French and Indian War " thus opened was fought with varying 

success till 1760, when the British held Quebec, Montreal, Fort 
Duquesne, and all the other French strongholds in America. In 
1763 peace was made, and nearly all the French possessions east of 
the Mississippi River were surrendered to the British. 



^ o 






1690. Sir W. Phips takes Port Royal. 
Sir W. Phips attacks Quebec. 
Montreal attacked. 
1690-1697. The New York and New England 
frontier ravaged by the French and 
Indians. 
1697. Peace of Ryswick. Port Royal given 
back to the French. 

^ 1702-1713. Frontier of New England ravaged. 
1710. Port Royal again taken. 



1711. 
1713. 



1744. 



Quebec again attacked. 
Peace of Utrecht. Acadia held by the 
English. 



French attack Canso and Annapolis (Port 
Royal). 
1745. Louisburg (Cape Breton Island) taken. 

1748. Louisburg given back to the French. 

1699. The French at the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi. 

1701. The occupation of the valley begun. 

1701-1748. The chain of forts joining New Or- 
leans and Montreal. 

1749. The French on the Allegheny. 
Celeron's expedition. The buried plates. 

1753. The French fortify the Allegheny val- 
ley. 

1754-1763. The struggle for final possession. 

1758. The capture of Louisburg. 

1759. The capture of Quebec. 

1760. The capture of Montreal. 
1763. The French abandon America. 






o S cS 

;< S5 ^ 

Cfc j> S 

f> a CO 






o 






THE STRUGGLE FOR THE RIGHTS OF 
ENGLISHMEN 

CHAPTER IX 

LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763 



91. Things unknown in 1763. — Had a traveler landed on our 
shores in 1763 and made a journey through the English colo- 
nies in America, he would have seen a 
country utterly unlike the United States 
of to-day. The entire population, white 
man and black, freeman and slave, was 
not so great as that of New York or 
Philadelphia or Chicago in our time. 
If we were to write a list of all the 
things we now consider as real neces- 
saries of daily life and mark off those 
unknown to the men of 1763, not one 
quarter would remain. No man in the 
country had ever seen a stove, or a fur- 
nace, or a friction match, or an envel- 
ope, or a piece of mineral coal. From 
the farmer we should have to take the 
reaper, the drill, the mowing machine, 
and every kind of improved rake and plow, and give him back 
the scythe, the cradle, and the flail. From our houses would 
go the sewing machine, the daily newspaper, gas, running 
water; and from our tables, the tomato, the cauliflower, the 
eggplant, and many varieties of summer fruits. We should 
have to destroy every railroad, every steamboat, every factory 

93 




Lamp and sadiron 



94 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

and mill, pull down every line of telegraph, silence every 
telephone, put out every electric light, and tear up every tele- 
graphic cable from the beds of innumerable rivers and seas. 
We should have to take ether and chloroform from the sur- 
geon, and galvanized iron and India rubber from the arts, and 
give up every sort of machine moved by steam. 

92. State of the Arts, Sciences, and Industry. — The appli- 
ances left on the list, because in some form they were known 

to the men of 1763, would 
now be thought crude and 
clumsy. There were print- 
ing presses in those days, 
— perhaps fifty in all the 
colonies. But they were 
small, were worked by 
,. hand, and were so slow that 
)M>MU^^ ^^^ most expert pressman 
using one of them could 
°^ " ^^' not have printed so much 

in three working days as a modern steam press can run off 
in five minutes. There was a general post, and Benjamin 
Franklin was deputy postmaster-general for the northern 
district of the colonies. But the letters were carried thirty 
miles a day by postriders on horseback, and there were never 
more than three mails a week between even the great towns. 
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday a postrider left New 
York city for Philadelphia. Every Monday and Thursday 
another left New York for Boston. Once each week a rider 
left for Albany on his way to Quebec. On the first Wednes- 
day of each month a packet boat sailed from New York for 
Falmouth, England, with the mail, and this was the only mail 
between Great Britain and her American colonies. We put 
electricity to a thousand uses ; but in 1763 it was a scientific 
toy. Franklin had just proved by his experiment with the 
kite that lightning and electricity were one and the same, and 
1 From an old print, 1760. - " 




LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763 95 

several other men were amusing themselves and their hearers 
by ringing bells, exploding powder, and making colored sparks. 
But it was put to no other use. If we take up a daily news- 
paper published in one of our great cities and read the column 
of wants, we find in them twenty occupations now giving a 
comfortable living to millions of men. Yet not one of these 
twenty existed in 1763. The district messenger, the telegraph 
operator, the typewriter, the stenographer, the bookkeeper, the 
canvasser, the salesman, the commercial traveler, the engi- 
neer, the car driver, the hackman, the conductor, the gripman, 
the brakeman, the electrician, the lineman, the elevator boy, 
and a host of others, follow trades and occupations which had 
no existence in the middle of the eighteenth century. 

UN away, the 23d of this 

Jnftant January^ from Silas Crlfpin of 
BuTrtngtoYiy Taylor, a Servant Man na- 
med Jofe^h Morrisy by Trade a Taylor, 
aged about 22 Years, of a middle Sta- 
ture, fwarthy Complexion, light gray 
Eyes, his Hair clippM off, marked with 
a large pit of the Small Pox on one 
Cheek near his Eye, had on when he 
^, went away a good Felt Hat, a yelowifh 

^ rr—rT' ^^^gg^tCoat with PIcits behind, an old 
Ozenbngs Vc(i» two Oienbrigs Shirts, a pair of Leather 
Breeches handfomely worm'd and flower'd up the Knees 
yarn Stockings and good round toc'd Shoes Took with 
him a large pair oi Sheers crack'd in one of the Bows, & 
mark'd with the Word [Savoyl Whoever takes up 'the 
raid Servant, and fecurcs him fo that his Mafter may have 
him aga.n, ihall have *Three Pounds Reward befides reafo- 
nable Charges paid by me Silas Crifpm. 

From a Philadelphia newspaper 

93. Labor. — On the other hand, if we take up a newspaper 
of that day and read the advertisements, we find that a great 
deal of what existed then does not exist now. The newspapers 
were published in a few of the large towns, and appeared not 




96 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

every day, but once a week. In the largest of them would be 
from seventy-live to eighty advertisements, setting forth that 
such a merchant had just received from England or the West 
Indies a stock of new goods which he would sell for cash; that 
the Charmiyig Nancy would sail in a few weeks for London- 



To Be DISPOSED of, 

A Likely Servant Mans Time for 4 Years 
who is very well Qualified for a Clerk or to teach 
a School, he Reads, Writes, underftands Arithmetick and 
Accompts very well, Enquire of the Printer hereof. 

Lately improted from Antigua 

and to be Sold by Edward Jones /» 
I^cc Norris'x AUey, 

A PARCEL oflikely Ne- 
groWomen&Girlsfrom thirteen 
•!L2^^' 1? to one and twenty Years of age, and have 

all had the Small -Pox. 

To Be SOLD, " 

TWO verly likely Negroe 
Boys, Enquire of Capr. Benjamin Chrif* 
tiariy at his Houfe in Arch-StreeU 

Alfo a Quantity of very good Lime-juice 
to be Sold cheap. 





From a Philadelphia newspaper 

deny in Ireland, or for Barbados, or for Amsterdam in Holland, 
and wanted a cargo ; that a tract of land or a plantation would 
be sold " at vendue, " or, as we say, at auction ; that a reward 
of five pistoles would be paid for the arrest of " a lusty negroe 
man" or an "indented servant" or an "apprentice lad," who 
had run away from his owner or master. Very rarely is a 
call made for a mechanic or a workman of any sort. 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763 97 

The reason for this was two fold. In the first place, negro 
slavery existed in all the thirteen colonies. In the second 
place, there were thousands of whites in many of the colonies 
in a state of temporary servitude, which was sometimes volun- 
tary and sometimes involuntary. 

Those who served against their will were convicts and felons, 
not only men and women who had been guilty of stealing, 
cheating, and the like, but also forgers, counterfeiters, and mur- 
derers, who were transported by thousands from the English 
prisons to the colonies and sold into slavery or service for 
seven or fourteen years. ^ Advertisements are extant in which 
the masters from whom such servants have run away warn 
the people to beware of them. 

But all " indented " or bond servants were not criminals. 
Many were reputable persons who sold themselves into service 
for a term of years in return for transportation to America. 
Others, generally boys and young women, had been kidnaped 
and sold by the persons who stole them. 

94. Indentured Servants. — In the case of such as came vol- 
untarily, carefully drawn agreements called indentures would 
be made in writing. The captain of the ship would agree to 
bring the emigrant to America. The emigrant would agree in 
return to serve the captain three or five years. When the 
ship reached port, the captain would advertise the fact that he 
had carpenters, tailors, farmers, shoemakers, etc., for sale, and 
whoever wanted such labor would go on board the ship and 
for perhaps fifty dollars buy a man bound to serve him for 
several years in return for food, clothes, and lodging. Not 
only men, but also women and children, were sold in this way, 
and were known as "indented servants," or "redemptioners," 
because they redeemed their time of service with labor. Their 

1 One act of Parliament, for instance, provided that persons sentenced 
to be whipped or branded might, if they wished, escape the punishment 
by serving seven years in the colonies, and never returning to England. 
Another allowed convicts sentenced to death to commute the sentence by 
serving fourteen years. 



98 



STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 




Wigs and wig bag 



lot seems to have been a hard one ; for the young men were 
constantly running away, and the newspapers are full of ad- 
vertisements offering rewards for their arrest. 

What we call the workingman, the day laborer, the me- 
chanic, the mill hand, had no existence as classes. The great 
corporations, railroads, express companies, mills, factories of 
every sort, which now cover our land and give employment 
to five times as many men and women as lived in all the colo- 
nies in 1763, are the creatures of our own time. 

95. No Manufacturers. — For this state of things England 
was largely to blame. For one hundred years past every kind 

of manufacture that could com- 
pete with the manufactures of the 
mother country had been crushed 
by law. In order to help her iron 
makers, she forbade the colonists 
to set up iron furnaces and slitting 
mills. That her cloth manufacturers might flourish, she for- 
bade the colonists to send their woolen goods to any 
country whatever, or even from one colony to an- 
othero Under this law it was a crime to knit a pair 
of mittens or a pair of socks and send 
them from Boston to Providence or 
from New York to Newark, or from 
Philadelphia across the Delaware to 
New Jersey. . In the interest of Eng- 
lish hatters the colonists were not al- 
lowed to send hats to any foreign 
country, nor from one colony to ===^^=--*j|[ 
another, and a serious effort was 
made to prevent the manufacture 
of hats in America. People in this 
country were obliged to wear English-made hats. Taking the 
country through, every saw, every ax, every hammer, every 
needle, pin, tack, piece of tape, and a hundred other articles 
of daily use came from Great Britain. 




Flax wheel 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 17G3 



99 




Every farmhouse, however, was a little factor}-, and every 
farmer a jack-of -all-trades. He and his sons made their own 
shoes, beat out nails and 
spikes, hinges, and every 
sort of ironmongery, 
and constructed much of 
the household furniture. 
The wife and her daugh- 
ters manufactured the 
clothing, from , dressing 
the flax and carding the 
wool to cutting the 
cloth; knit the mittens 
and socks; and during 
the winter made straw 
bonnets to sell in the 
towns in the spring. 

Even in such towns 
as were large enough to 
support a few artisans, 

each made, with the help of an apprentice, and perhaps a 
journeyman, all the articles he sold. 

96. The Cities. — If we take a map of our country and run 
over the great cities of to-day, we find that except along the 
seacoast hardly one existed, in 1765, even in name. Detroit 
was a little French settlement surrounded with a high stock- 
ade. New Orleans existed, and St. Louis had just been 
founded, but they both belonged to Spain. Mobile and Pen- 
sacola and Natchez and Vincennes consisted of a few huts 
gathered about old Erench forts. There was no city, no 
town worthy of the name, in the English colonies west of 
the Alleghany Mountains. Along the Atlantic coast we find 
Portsmouth, Boston, Providence, New Haven, New York, 
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Alexandria, Williamsburg, Charles- 
ton, Savannah, and others of less note. But the largest of 
1 From an old loom in the National Museum, Washington. 



Hand loomi 



100 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

these were mere collections of a few hundred houses ranged 
along streets, none of which were sewered and few of which 
were paved or lighted. The watchman went his rounds at 
night with rattle and lantern, called out the hours and the 
state of the weather, and stopped and demanded the name 




Colonial mansion in Charleston 

of every person found walking the streets after nine o'clock. 
To travel on Sunday was a serious and punishable offense, as 
it was on any day to smoke in the streets, or run from house 
to house with hot coals, which in those days, when there were 
no matches, were often used instead of flint and steel to light 
fires. 

Travel between the large towns was almost entirely by sail- 
ing vessel, or on horseback. The first stagecoach-and-four in 
New England began its trips in 1744. The first stage between 
New York and Philadelphia was not set up till 1756, and spent 
three days on the road. 

97. The Three Groups of Colonies. — It has always been usual 
to arrange the colonies in three groups: 1. The Eastern or 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763 



101 



New England Colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Ehode 
Island, and Connecticut). 2. The Middle Colonies (New York, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware). 3. The Southern 
Colonies (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, 
and Georgia). Now, this arrangement is good not only from a 
geographical point of view, but also because the people, the 
customs, the manners, the occupations, in each of these groups 
were very unlike the people and the ways of living in the 
others. 

98. Occupations in New England. — In New England the col- 
onists were almost entirely English, though there were some 




New England mansion 

Scotch, some Scotch-Irish, a few Huguenot refugees from 
France, and, in Rhode Island, a few Portuguese Jews. As 
the climate and soil did not admit of raising any great 
staple, such as rice or tobacco, the people " took to the sea." 
They cut down trees, with which the land was covered, built 
ships, and sailed away to the Grand Banks off Newfound- 
land for cod, and to the whale fisheries for oil. They went to 



102 



STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 



the English, Dutch, and Spanish West Indian Islands, with 
flour, salt meat, horses, oxen; with salted salmon, cod, and 
mackerel ; with staves for barrels ; with onions and salted oys- 
ters. In return, they came back with sugar, molasses, cotton, 
wool, logwood, and Spanish dollars with which the New Eng- 
land Colonies paid for the goods they took from England. 
They went to Spain, where their ships were often sold, the 
captains chartering English vessels and coming home with car- 
goes of goods made in England. Six hundred ships are said to 
have been employed in the foreign trade of Boston, and more 

than a thousand in the 
fisheries and the trade 
along the coast. 

Farming, outside of 
Connecticut, yielded lit- 
tle more than a bare sub- 
sistence. Manufactures 
in general were forbidden 
by English law. Paper 
and hats were made in 
small quantities, leather 
was tanned, lumber was 
sawed, and rum was dis- 
tilled from molasses ; but 
it was on homemade man- 
ufactures that the people 
depended. 

99. Occupations in the 
Middle Colonies. — In the 
Middle Colonies the pop- 
ulation was a mixture of people from many European countries. 
The line of little villages which began at the west end of Long 
Island and stretched up the Hudson to Albany, and out the 
Mohawk to Schenectady — the settled part of New York — 
contained Englishmen, Irishmen, Dutchmen, French Hugue- 
1 From an old print. 




Dutch house at Albany i 




LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763 103 

nots, Germans from the Rhine countries, and negroes from 
Africa. The chief occupations of those people were farming, 
making flour, and carrying on an extensive commerce with Eng- 
land, Spain, and the West Indian Islands. 

In New Jersey the population was almost entirely English, 
but in Pennsylvania it was as mixed as in New York. Around 
Philadelphia the English predominated, 
but with them were mingled Swedes, Dutch, 
Welsh, Germans, and Scotch-Irish. Taken 
together, the Germans and the Scotch-Irish 
far outnumbered the English, and made up 
the mass of the population between the 
Schuylkill and the Susquehanna rivers. 
Both were self-willed and stubborn, and 
they were utterly unable to get along to- Shoes worn by Palatines 
gether peaceably, so that their settlements ^^ Pennsylvania 
ran across the state in two parallel bands, in one of which 
whole regions could be found in which not a word of English 
was spoken. Indeed, then, and long after the nineteenth 
century began, the laws of Pennsylvania were printed both in 
English and in German. The chief occupation of the people 
was farming ; and it is safe to say that no such farms, no such 
cattle, no such grain, flour, provisions, could be found in any 
other part of the country. Lumber, too, was cut and sold in 
great quantities ; and along the frontier there was a lively fur 
trade with the Indians. At Philadelphia was centered a fine 
trade with Europe and the West Indies. Had it not been for 
the action of the mother country, manufactures would have 
flourished greatly ; even as it was, iron and paper were manu- 
factured in considerable quantities. 

100. Occupations in the Southern Colonies. — South of Pennsyl- 
vania, and especially south of the Potomac River, lay a region 
utterly unlike anything to the north of it. In Virginia, there 
were no cities, no large towns, no centers of population. At 
an early day in the history of the colony the legislature had 
attempted to remedy this, and had ordered towns to be built 




104 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

at certain places, had made them the only ports where ships 
from abroad could be entered, had established tobacco ware- 
houses in them, had offered special privileges to tradesmen who 
would settle in them, and had provided tliat each should have 
a market and a fair. But the success was small, and Fredericks- 
burg and Alexandria and Petersburg were ';|traggling villages. 
Jamestown, the old capital, had by this time ceased to exist. 
Williamsburg, the new capital, was a vil^4'ge of 200 houses. 
There was no business, no incentive in Virgpiia to build towns. 
The planters own^d^ immense planta- 
tions along the vivtv banks, and raised 
tobacco, which, when gath- 
ered, cured, and 
packed into 
hogsheads, was 
rolled away to the nearest wharf for 
inspection and shipment to London. In those early days, 
when good roads were unknown and wagons few, shafts were 
attached to each hogshead by iron bolts driven into the heads, 
and the cask was thus turned into a huge roller. With each 
year's crop would go a long list of articles of every sort, — 
hardware, glass, crockery, clothing, furniture, household uten- 

* wines, — which the agent was instructed to buy with the 
Beds of the tobacco and send back to the planter when 
the ships, came s year later for another crop. The country 
abounded in trees, yet tables, chairs, boxes, cart wheels, bowls, 
birch brooms, all came from the mother country. The wood 
'^ed for building houses was actually cut, sent to England as 
logs to be dressed, and then taken back to Virginia for use. 

Maryland was in the same condition. Her people raised 
tobacco, and with it bought their clothing, household goods, 
brass and copper wares, and iron utensils in Great Britain. 

In South Carolina rice was the great staple, just as tobacco 
was the staple of Virginia, and there too were large planta- 
tions and no towns. All the social, commercial, legal, and 
1 From a model in the National Museum, Washington. 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 176J 



105 




An old Maryland manor house 

political life of the colony centered in Charleston, from which 
a direct trade was carried on with London. 

Labor on the plantations of Virginia, the two Carolinas, and 
Georgia was performed exclusively by negro slaves and redemp- 
tioners. 

101. Civil Government in the English Colonies. — If we arrange 
the. colonies according to the kind of civil government in 
each, we find that they fall into three classes : 

1. The charter colonies (Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Ehode 

Island). 

2. The proprietary colonies (Pennsylvania, Delaware, and 

Maryland). 

3. The royal, or provincial, colonies (New Hampshire, Kew 

York, New Jersey, Virginia, North and South Carolina, 
and Georgia). 

The charters of the first group were written contracts between 
the King and the colonists, defined the share each should have 
in the government, and were not to be changed without the 



106 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

consent of both parties. In colonies of the second group some 
individual, called the proprietary, was granted a great tract of 
land by the King, and, under a royal charter, was given power 
to sell the land to settlers, establish government, and appoint 
the governors of his colony. In the third group, the King 
appointed the governors and instructed them as to the way in 
which he wished his colonies to be ruled. 

With these differences, all the colonies had the same form of 
government. In each there was a legislature elected by the 
people; in each the right to vote was limited to men who 
owned land, paid taxes, had a certain yearly income, and were 
members of some Christian church. The legislature consisted 
of two branches : the lower house, to which the people elected 
delegates ; and the upper house, or council, appointed by the 
governor. These legislatures could do many things, but their 
powers were limited and their acts were subject to review: 
1. They could do nothing contrary to the laws of England. 
2'. "Whatever they did could be vetoed by the governors, and 
no bill could be passed over the veto. 3. All laws passed by 
a colonial legislature (except in the case of Connecticut, Ehode 
Island, and Maryland), and approved by a governor, must even 
then be sent to England to be examined by the King in Coun- 
cil, and could be " disallowed " or vetoed by the King at any 
time within three years. This power was used so constantly 
that the colonial legislatures, in time, would pass laws to run 
for two years, and when that time expired would reenact them 
for two years more, and so on in order to avoid the veto. In this 
way the colonists became used to three political institutions 
which were afterwards embodied in what is now the American 
system of state and national government: 1. The written 
constitution defining the powers of government. 2. The exer- 
cise of the veto power by the governor. 3. The setting aside 
of laws by a judicial body from whose decision there is no 
appeal. 

102. The Colonial Governors. — The governor of a royal prov- 
ince was the personal representative of the King, and as such 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763 107 

had vast power. The legislature could meet only when he 
called it. He could at any moment prorogue it (that is, com- 
mand it to adjourn to a certain day) or dissolve it, and, if the 
King ap]3roved, he need never call it together again. He was 
the chief justice of the highest colonial court, he appointed 
all the judges, and, as commander in chief of the militia, 
appointed all important officers. Yet even he was subject to 
some control, for his salary was paid by the colony over which 
he ruled, and, by refusing to pay this salary, the legislature 
could, and over and over again did, force him to approve acts 
he would not otherwise have sanctioned. In Connecticut and 
Rhode Island the people elected the governors. This right 
once existed also in Massachusetts ; but when the old charter 
was swept away in 1684, and replaced by a new one in 1691, 
the King was given power to appoint the governor, who could 
summon, dissolve, and prorogue the legislature at his pleasure. 

103. Lords of Trade and Plantations. — That the King should 
give personal attention to all the details of government in his 
colonies in America, was not to be expected. In 1696, there- 
fore, a body called the Lords of the Board of Trade and Plan- 
tations was commissioned by the King to do this work for him. 
These Lords of Trade corresponded with the governors, made 
recommendations, bade them carry out this or that policy, veto 
this or that class of laws, examined all the laws sent over by 
the legislatures, and advised the King as to which should be 
disallowed, or vetoed. 

In the early years of our colonial history the Parliament of 
England had no share in the direction of colonial affairs. It 
was the King who owned all the land, made all the grants, 
gave all the charters, created all the colonies, governed many 
of them, and stoutly denied the right of Parliament to meddle. 
But when Charles I. was beheaded, the Long Parliament took 
charge of the management of affairs in this country, and al- 
though much of it went back to the King at the Restoration in 
1660, Parliament still continued to legislate for the colonies 
in a few matters. Thus, for instance, Parliament by one act 
McM. Hist. — 7 



108 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

established the postal service, and fixed the rates of postage ; 
by another it regulated the currency, and by another required 
the colonists to change from the Old Style to the New Style 
— that is, to stop using the Julian calendar and to count time 
in future by the Gregorian calendar ; by another it established 
a uniform law of naturalization ; and from time to time it passed 
acts for the purpose of regulating colonial trade. 

104. Acts of Trade and Navigation. — The number of these 
acts is very large ; but their purpose was four fold : 

1. They required that colonial trade should be carried on in 

ships built and owned in England or in the colonies, 
and manned to the extent of two thirds of the crew by 
English subjects. 

2. They provided a long list of colonial products that should 

not be sent to any foreign ports other than a port of 
England. Goods or products not in the list might be 
sent to any other part of the world. Thus tobacco, sugar, 
indigo, copper, furs, rice (if the rice was for a port north 
of Cape Finisterre), must go to England; but lumber, 
salt fish, and provisions might go (in English or colonial 
ships) to France, or Spain, or to other foreign countries. 

3. When trade began to spring up between the colonies, and 

the New England merchants were competing in the colo- 
nial markets with English merchants, an act was passed 
providing that if a product which went from one colony 
to another was of a kind that might have been supplied 
from England, it must either go to the mother country 
and then to the purchasing colony, or pay an export duty 
at the port where it was shipped, equal to the import 
duty it would have to pay in England. 

4. No goods were allowed to be carried from any place in 

Europe to America unless they were first landed at ,a 
port in England.^ 

1 Edward Eggleston's papers in the Century Magazine^ 1884 ; Scudder's, 
Men and Manners One Hundred Years Ago ; Lodge's English Colonies. 



LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763 



109 



SUMMARY 



2. 



4. 



5. 



6. 



The men who began the long struggle for the rights of Englishmen 
lived in a state of society very different from ours, and were utterly 
ignorant of most of the commonest things we use in daily life. 

Labor was performed by slaves, by criminals sent over to the colonies 
and sold, and by "indented servants," or " redemptioners. " 

Manufactures were forbidden by the laws of trade. Nobody was per- 
mitted to manufacture iron beyond the state of pig or bar iron, or 
make woolen goods for export, or make hats. 

Taking the colonies in geographical groups, the Eastern were engaged 
in fishing, in commerce, and in farming ; the Middle Colonies were 
agricultural and commercial ; the Southern were wholly agricul- 
tural, and raised two great staples — rice and tobacco. 

As a consequence, town life existed in the Eastern and Middle Colo- 
nies, and was little known in the South, particularly in Virginia. 

Over the colonies, as a great governing body to aid the King, were the 
Lords of Trade and Plantations in London. Under them in 
America were the royal and proprietary governors, who with the 
local colonial legislatures managed the affairs of the colonies. 





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Labor. 



Population. 

Implements and inventions unknown. 

The printing press. 

The postal service. 

Trades and occupations then unknown. 

f The apprentice. 
The "indented servant." 
The redemptioner. 

[ The slave. 
No manufactures. ( Iron making. 

Acts of trade regulating -j Cloth making. 
The cities. ( Hat making. 

Travel. 

The Navigation Acts. 
I State of agriculture. 

The charter colonies. 

The proprietary colonies. 

The royal colonies. 

The colonial governor. 

The Lords of Trade and Plantations. 

The King. 



CHAPTER X 

"LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS" 

105. The New Provinces. — The acquisition of Canada and 
the Mississippi valley made it necessary for England to pro- 
vide for their defense and government. To do this she began 
by establishing three new provinces. 

In Canada she marked out the province of Quebec, part of 
the south boundary of which is now the north boundary of 
New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, 

In the South, out of the territory given by Spain, she made 
two provinces. East and West Florida. The north boundary 
of West Florida was (1764) a parallel of latitude through the 
junction of the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers. The north 
boundary of East Florida was part of the boundary of the pres- 
ent state. The territory between the Altamaha and the St. 
Marys rivers was "annexed to Georgia." 

106. The Proclamation Line. — By the same proclamation 
which established these provinces, a line was drawn around 
the head waters of all the rivers in the United States which 
flow into the Atlantic Ocean, and the colonists were forbidden 
to settle to the west of it. All the valley from the Great 
Lakes to West Florida, and from the proclamation line to the 
Mississippi, was set apart for the Indians. 

107. The Country to be defended. — Having thus provided for 
the government of the newly acquired territory, it next be- 
came necessary to provide for its defense ; for nobody doubted 
that both France and Spain would some day attempt to regain 
their lost possessions. Arrangements were therefore made to 
bring over an army of 10,000 regular troops, scatter them over 

110 



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111 



112 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

the country from Canada to Florida, and maintain them partly 
at the expense of the colonies and partly at the expense of 
the crown. 

The share to be paid by the colonies was to be raised 

1. By enforcing the old trade and navigation laws. 

2. By a tax on sugar and molasses brought into the country. 

3. By a stamp tax. 

108. Trial without Jury. — In order to enforce the old laws, 

naval vessels were sent to sail up and down the coast and catch 
smugglers. Offenders when seized were to be tried in some 
vice-admiralty court, where they could not have trial by jury.^ 

109. The Sugar Act and Stamp Tax. — The Sugar Act was not 
a new grievance. In 1733 Parliament laid a tax of 6d. a gallon 
on molasses and 5s. per hundredweight on sugar brought into 
this country from any other place than the British West Indies. 
This was to force the colonists to buy their sugar and molasses 
from nobody but British sugar planters. After having ex- 
pired five times and been five times reenacted, the Sugar Act 
expired for the sixth time in 1763, and the colonies begged 
that it might not be renewed. But Parliament merely reduced 
the molasses duty to 3d., and laid new duties on coffee, French 
and East Indian goods, indigo, white sugar, and Spanish and 
Portuguese wines. It then resolved that " for further defray- 
ing the expense of protecting the colonists it would be neces- 
sary to charge certain stamp duties in the colonies." 

At that time, 1764, no such thing as an internal tax laid by 
Parliament for the purpose of raising revenue existed, or ever 
had existed, in America. Money for the use of the King had 
always been raised by taxes imposed by the legislatures of the 
colonies. The moment, therefore, the people heard that this 
money was to be raised in future by parliamentary taxation, 
they became much alarmed, and the legislatures instructed 
their business agents in London to protest. 

1 This is one of the things complained of in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. 



LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS 



113 



This the agents did in I'ebruary, 1765. But Grenville, the 
Prime Minister, was not to be persuaded, and on March 22, 
1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act.^ 

110. The Stamp Distributors. — That the collection of the 
new duty might give as little offense to the colonists as pos- 
sible, Grenville desired that the stamps and the stamped 
paper should be sold by Americans, and invited the agents 
of the colonies to name men to be "stamp distributors" in 
their colonies. The law was to go into effect on the 1st of 
November, 1765. After that day every piece of vellum, every 
piece of paper, on which was written any legal document for 
use in any court, was to be charged with a stamp duty of from 
three pence to ten pounds sterling. After that day, every 
license, bond, deed, warrant, bill of lading, indenture, every 
pamphlet, almanac, newspaper, pack of cards, must be written 
or printed on stamped paper to be made in England and sold 
at prices fixed by law. If any dispute arose under the law, the 
case might be tried in the vice-admiralty courts without a jury.^ 

1 The exact text of the Stamp Act has been reprinted in American His- 
tory Leaflets^ No. 21. For an excellent account of the causes and conse- 
quences of the Stamp Act, read Lecky's England in the Eighteenth Cen- 
tury, Vol. III., Chap. 12 ; Frothingham's Bise of the Republic of the 
United States, Chap. 5; Channing's The United States of America, 
1765-1865, pp. 41-50. 



8> 



7t)ne\ 
iPeDnyj 




Stamps used in 1765 




2 The stamps were not the adhesive kind we are now accustomed to 
fasten on letters. Those used for newspapers and pamphlets and prhited 
documents consisted of a crown surmounting a circle in which were the 
words, "One Penny Sheet" or "Nine Pence per Quire," and were 



114 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

The money raised by this tax was not to be taken to Engla.nd, 
but was to be spent in America for the defense of the colonies. 
Nevertheless, the colonists were determined that none should 
be raised. The question was not, Shall America support an 
army ? but, Shall Parliament tax America ? 

111. The Virginia Resolutions. — In opposition to this, Vir- 
ginia now led the way with a set of resolutions. In the 
House of Burgesses, as the popular branch of her legislature 
was called, was Patrick Henry, the greatest orator in the colo- 
nies. By dint of his fiery words, he forced througli a set of 
resolutions setting forth 

1. That the first settlers in Virginia brought with them " all 

the privileges and immunities that have at any time been 
held " by " the people of Great Britain." 

2. That their descendants held these rights. 

3. That by two royal charters the people of Virginia had been 

declared entitled to all the rights of Englishmen "born 
within the realm of England." 

4. That one of these rights was that of being taxed " by their 

own Assembly." 

5. That they were not bound to obey any law taxing them 

without consent of their Assembly.^ 

Massachusetts followed with a call for a congress to meet 
at New York city. 

stamped on each sheet in red ink by a hand stamp not unlike those used 
at the present day to cancel stamps on letters. Others, used on vellum 
and parchment, consisted of a square piece of blue paper, glued on the 
parchment, and fastened by a little piece of brass. A design was then 
impressed on the blue paper by means of a little machine like that used 
by magistrates and notaries public to impress their seals on legal docu- 
ments. When this was done, the parchment was turned over, and a little 
piece of white paper was pasted on the back of the stamp. On this white 
piece was engraved, in black, the design shown in the second picture 
on p. 113, the monogram " G. R." meaning G^orgius Rex, or King 
George. 

1 These resolutions, printed in full from Henry's manuscript copy, 
are in Channing's The United States of America, 1765-1865, pp. 61, 
52. They were passed May 29, 1765. 



"LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS" 115 

112. Stamp-act Congress. — To the congress thus called came 
delegates from all the colonies except New Hampshire, Virginia, 
North Carolina, and Georgia. The session began at New York, 
on the 5th of October, 1765; and after sitting in secret for 
twenty days, the delegates from six of the nine colonies present 
(Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware, and Maryland) signed a "Declaration of Eights and 
Grievances." ^ 

113. Declaration of Rights. — The ground taken in the decla- 
ration was 

1. That the Americans were subjects of the British crown. 

2. That it was the natural right of a British subject to pay no 

taxes unless he had a voice in laying them. 

3. That the Americans were not represented in Parliament. 

4. That Parliament, therefore, could not tax them, and that 

an attempt to do so was an attack on the rights of 
Englishmen and the liberty of self-government. 

114. Grievances. — The grievances complained of were : 
1. Taxation without representation. 2. Trial without jury 
(in the vice-admiralty courts). 3. The Sugar Act. 4. The 
Stamp Act. 5. Restrictions on trade. 

115. The English View of Representation. — We, in this coun- 
try, do not consider a person represented in a legislature unless 
he can cast a vote for a member of that legislature. In Great 
Britain, not individuals but classes were represented. Thus, 
the clergy were represented by the bishops who sat in the 
House of Lords ; the nobility, by the nobles who had seats in 
the House of Lords; and the mass of the people, the com- 
mons, by the members of the House of Commons. At that 
time, very few Englishmen could vote for a member of the 
House of Commons. Great cities like Liverpool, Leeds, Man- 
chester, did not send even one member. When the colonists 
held that they were not represented in Parliament because 

1 This declaration is printed in full in Preston's Documents Illustrative 
of American History, pp. 188-191. 



116 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

they did not elect any members of that body, Englishmen 
answered that they were represented, because they were 
commoners. 

116. Sons of Liberty. — Meantime, the colonists had not been 
idle. Taking the name of " Sons of Liberty," a name given to 
them in a speech by a member of Parliament (named Barre) 
friendly to their cause, they began to associate for resistance 
to the Stamp Act. At first, they were content to demand that 
the stamp distributors named by the colonial agents in London 
' should resign. But when these officers refused, the people 
became violent ; and at Boston, Newark, N. J., New Haven, 
New London, Conn., at Providence, at Newport, R.L, at Dover, 
N.H., at Annapolis, Md., serious riots took place. Buildings 
were torn down, and more than one unhappy distributor was 
dragged from his home, and forced to stand before the people 
and shout, "• Liberty, property, and no stamps." 

117. November i, 1765. — As the 1st of November, the day 
on which the Stamp Act was to go into force, approached, 
the newspapers appeared decorated with death's-heads, black 
borders, coffins, and obituary notices. The Pennsylvania Jour- 
nal dropped its usual heading, and in place of it put an 
arch with a skull and crossbones underneath, and this motto, 
" Expiring in the hopes of a resurrection to life again." In one 
corner was a coffin, and the words, " The last remains of the 
Peyinsylvania Journal, which departed this life the 31st of 
October, 1765, of a stamp in her vitals. Aged 23 years." The 
Pennsylvania Gazette, on November 7, the day of its first issue 
after the Stamp Act became law, published a half sheet, printed 
on one side, without any heading, and in its place the words, 
" No stamped paper to be had." During the next six months, 
every scrap of stamped paper that was heard of was hunted 
up and given to the flames. Thus, when a vessel from Bar- 
bados, with a stamped newspaper published on that island, 
reached Philadelphia, the paper was seized and burned, one 
evening, at the coffeehouse, in the presence of a great crowd. 
A vessel having put in from Halifax, a rumor spread that 



"LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS" 117 

the captain had brought stamped paper with him, and was 
going to use it for his Philadelpliia clearance. This so enraged 
the people that the vessel was searched, and a sheet of paper 
with three stamps on it was found, and burned at the coffee- 
house. 

118. Non-importation Agreements. — Meantime, the merchants 
in the larger towns, and the people all over the country, had 
been making written agreements not to import any goods from 
England for some months to come. 

The effect of this measure was immense. Not a merchant 
nor a manufacturer in Great Britain, engaged in the colonial 
trade, but found his American orders canceled and his goods 
left on his hands. Not a ship returned from this country but 
carried back English wares which it had brought here to sell, 
but for which no purchaser could be found. 

119. Stamp Act repealed. — When Parliament met in Decem- 
ber, 1765, such a cry of distress came up from the manufactur- 
ing cities of England, that Parliament was forced to yield, and 
in March, 1766, the Stamp Act was repealed. In the out- 
burst of joy which followed in America, the intent and mean- 
ing of another act passed at the same time was little heeded. 
In it was the declaration that Parliament did have the right 
to tax the colonies " in all cases whatsoever." 

120. The Townshend Acts. — If the people thought this decla- 
ration had no meaning, they were much mistaken, for next year 
(1767) Parliament passed what have since been called the 
Townshend Acts. There were three of them. One forbade 
the legislature of New York to pass any more laws till it had 
provided the royal troops in the city with beds, candles, fire, 
vinegar, and salt, as required by what was called the Mutiny 
Act. The second established at Boston a Board of Commis- 
sioners of the Customs to enforce the laws relating to trade. 
The third laid taxes on glass, red and white lead, painter's 
colors, paper, and tea. None of these taxes was heavy. But 
again the right of Parliament to tax people not represented in 
it had been asserted, and again the colonists rose in resistance. 



118 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

The legislature of Massachusetts sent a letter to each of the 
other colonial legislatures, urging them to unite and consult 
for the protection of their rights. Pennsylvania sent protests 
to the King and to Parliament. The merchants all over the 
country renewed their old agreements not to import British 
goods, and many a shipload was sent back to England. 

121. Colonial Legislatures dissolved.^ — The letter of Massa- 
chusetts to the colonial legislatures having given great offense 
to the King, the governors were ordered to see to it that the 
legislatures did not approve it. But the order came too late. 
Many had already done so, and as a punishment the assem- 
blies of Maryland and Georgia were dismissed and the mem- 
bers sent home. To dissolve assemblies became of frequent 
occurrence. The legislature of Massachusetts was dissolved 
because it refused to recall the letter. That of New York was 
repeatedly dissolved for refusing to provide the royal troops 
with provisions. That of Virginia was dismissed for complain- 
ing of the treatment of New York. 

122. Boston Riot of 1770. — And now the troops intended 
for the defense of the colonies began to arrive. But Massa- 
chusetts, North Carolina, and South Carolina followed the 
example of New York, and refused to find them quarters. 
For this the legislature of North Carolina was dissolved. 
Everywhere the presence of the soldiers gave great offense; 
but in Boston the people were less patient than elsewhere. 
They accused the soldiers of corrupting the morals of the 
town; of desecrating the Sabbath with fife and drum; of 
striking citizens who insulted them ; and of using language 
violent, threatening, and profane. In this state of feeling, an 
alarm of fire called the people into the streets on the night of 
March 5, 1770. The alarm was false, and a crowd of men and 
boys, having nothing to do, amused themselves by annoying 
a sentinel on guard at one of the public buildings. He called 
for help, and a corporal and six men were soon on the scene. 

1 One of the charges against the King in the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. 



"LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS" 119 

But the crowd would, not give way. Forty or fifty men came 
armed with sticks and pressed around the soldiers, shouting, 
"Rascals! Lobsters! Bloody-backs !" throwing snowballs and 
occasionally a stone, till in the excitement of the moment a 
soldier fired his gun. The rest followed his example, and 
when the reports died away, five of the rioters lay on the 
ground dead or dying, and six more dangerously wounded.^ 

This riot, this "Boston Massacre," or, as the colonists de- 
lighted to call it, " the bloody massacre," excited and aroused 
the whole land, forced the government to remove the soldiers 
from Boston to an island in the bay, and did more than any- 
thing else which had yet happened, to help on the Revolution. 

123. Tea sent to America and not received. — While these 
things were taking place in America — indeed, on the very day 
of the. Boston riot — a motion was made in Parliament for the 
repeal of all the taxes laid by the Townshend Acts except 
that on tea. The tea tax of 3c?. a pound, payable in the 
colonies, was retained in order that the right of Parliament 
to tax America might be vindicated. But the people held fast 
to their agreements not to consume articles taxed by Great 
Britain. No tea was drunk, save such as was smuggled from 
Holland, and at the end of three years' time the East India 
Company had 17,000,000 pounds of tea stored in its warehouses 
(1773). This was because the company was not permitted to 
send tea out of England. It might only bring tea to London 
and there sell it at public sale to merchants and shippers, 
who exported it to America. But now when the merchants 
could not find anybody to buy tea in the colonies, they bought 
less from the company, and the tea lay stored in its ware- 
houses. To relieve the company, and if possible tempt the 
people to use the tea, the exportation tax was taken off and 

1 The soldiers were tried for murder and were defended by John 
Adams and Josiah Quincy. Two were found guilty of manslaughter. 
The rest were acquitted. On the mas'sacre read Frothingham's Life of 
Warren^ Chaps. 6, 7 ; Kidder's The Boston Massacre ; Joseph Warren's 
Oration on March 6, 1775, in Library of American Literature, Vol. III., 
p. 256. 



120 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

the company was given leave to export tea to America con- 
signed to commissioners chosen by itself. Taking off the 
shilling a pound export tax in England, and charging but 
3d. import tax in America, made it possible for the company 
to sell tea cheaper than could the merchants who smuggled it. 
Yet even this failed. The people forced the tea commission- 
ers to resign or send the tea ships back to England. In 
Charleston, S.C, the tea was landed and stored for three years, 
when it was sold by South Carolina. In Philadelphia the 
people met, and having voted that the tea should not be 
landed, they stopped the ship as it came up the Delaware, and 
sent it back to London. 

124. The Boston Tea Party. — At Boston also the people tried 
to send the tea ships to England, but the authorities would not 
allow them to leave, whereupon a band of young men disguised 
as Indians boarded the vessels, broke open the boxes, and threw 
the tea into the water. 

125. The Five Intolerable Acts. — When Parliament heard of 
these events, it at once determined to punish Massachusetts, 
and in order to do this passed five laws which were so severe 
that the colonists called them the " Intolerable Acts." They 
are generally known as 

1. The Boston Port Bill, which shut the port of Boston to 

trade and commerce, forbade ships to come in or go out, 
and moved the customhouse to Marblehead. 

2. The Transportation Bill, which gave the governor power to 

send anybody accused of murder in resisting the lawS; 
to another colony or to England for trial. 

3. The Massachusetts Bill, which changed the old charter of 

Massachusetts, provided for a military governor, and for- 
bade the people to hold public meetings for any other 
purpose than the election of town officers, without per- 
mission from the governor. 

4. The Quartering Act, which legalized the quartering of 

troops on the people. 



"LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS" 121 

5. The Quebec Act, which enlarged the province of Quebec (pp. 
Ill, 124) to include all the territory between the Great 
Lakes, the Ohio Kiver, the Mississippi liiver, and Penn- 
sylvania. This territory was claimed by Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, and Virginia under their "sea to sea" 
charters (pp. 33, 46, 52, 156). 

126. A Congress called. — ■ When the Virginia legislature in 
May, 1774, heard of the passage of the Boston Port Bill, it 
passed a resolution that the day on which the law went into 
effect in Boston should be a day of " fasting, humiliation, and 
prayer " in Virginia. For this the governor at once dissolved 
the legislature. But the members met and instructed a com- 
mittee to correspond with the other colonies on the expediency 
of holding another general congress of delegates. All the 
colonies approved, and New York requested Massachusetts to 
name the time and place of meeting. This she did, selecting 
Philadelphia as the place, and September 1, 1774, as the time. 

127. The First Continental Congress. — From September 5 to 
October 26, accordingly, fifty-five delegates, representing every 
colony except Georgia, held meetings in Carpenter's Hall at 
Philadelphia, and issued 

1. An address to the people of the colonies. 

2. An address to the Canadians. 

3. An address to the people of Great Britain. 

4. An address to the King. 

5. A declaration of rights. 

128. The Declaration of Rights.^ — In this declaration the 
rights of the colonists were asserted to be 

1. Life, liberty, and property. 

2. To tax themselves. 

3. To assemble peaceably to petition for the redress of griev- 

ances. 

1 Printed in Preston's Documents, pp. 192-198. The best account of 
the coming of the Revolution is Frothingham's Bise of the Bepuhlic of 
the United States, Chaps. 5-11. 



122 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

4. To enjoy the rights of Englishmen and all the rights granted 
by the colonial charters. 

These rights it was declared had been violated 

1. By taxing the people without their consent. 

2. By dissolving assemblies. 

3. By quartering troops on the people in time of peace. 

4. By trying men without a jury. 

5. By passing the five Intolerable Acts. 

Before the Congress adjourned it was ordered that another 
Congress should meet on May 10, 1775, in order to take action 
on the result of the petition to the King. 



SUMMARY 

1. As soon as Great Britain acquired Canada and the eastern part of the 

Mississippi valley from France, and Florida from Spain, she did 
three things : 

A. She established the provinces of Quebec, East Florida, West 
Florida, and the Indian country. 

B. She drew a line round the sources of all the rivers flowing 
into the Atlantic from the west and northwest, and commanded the 
colonial governors to grant no land and to allow no settlements to 
be made west of this line. 

C. She decided to send a standing or permanent army to America 
to take possession of the new territory and defend the colonies. 

2. A part of the cost of keeping up this army she decided to meet by tax- 

ing the colonists. This she had never done before. 

3. The chief tax was the stamp duty on paper, vellum, etc. This the 

colonists refused to pay, and Parliament repealed it. 

4. The colonists having denied the right of Parliament to tax them, that 

body determined to establish its right and passed the " Townshend 
Acts." But the colonists refused to buy British goods, and Parlia- 
ment repealed all the Townshend duties except that on tea. 

5. As the Americans would not order tea from London, the East India 

Company was allowed to send it. But the people in the five cities 
to which the tea was sent destroyed it or sent it back. 

6. Parliament thereupon attempted to punish Massachusetts and passed 

the Intolerable Acts. 

7. These acts led to the calling and the meeting of the First Continental 

Congress. 



"LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS 



123 



England receives (1763) from 



France 



Cape Breton. 
Canada. 

Louisiana east of 
the Mississippi. 



Spain 



Florida. 



and cuts the new territory (1763) into 

Province of Quebec, 

East Florida, 

West Florida, 

Indian country, 
and draws proclamation line 

limiting colonies in the west. 

New colonial policy necessary. 



Country to be defended by 10,000 royal troops. 
Cost of troops to be paid 



I 
Partly by crown. 



Partly by colonies. 

I 



Share of colonies to be raised by 
Enforcing acts of trade and navigation. 
Taxes on sugar and molasses. 
Stamp tax (1765). 



Resisted. 

Action of Virginia and Massachusetts. 

Stamp Act Congress. 

Act repealed (1766). 

Declaratory Act (1766). 

( Glass. 

Red and white lead. 

Townshend Acts \ Painters' colors. 
(1767). I Paper. 

I Tea. 



Principle involved. 



Resisted and repealed (1770). 



Enforced. 
Resisted (1773). 
Resistance 



""""TV^^ . p,j^g Intoler- 1 Continental 
punished by < 



able Acts. J Congress called (1774). 




ihokia 
Kaskaskia/ " 0]il^ 

fj^ \ ( Harrodsbu 

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Salt Licks 



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Chickasaw <3 
Towhs 



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HillsV Tow 



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R I D A 



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1 7 64| 

Mobile]] Pensacola 



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^e^ Orleans , r> Ci^^ 

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Great Tellico /.' 




Longitude 



134 



65 

\ /^ A>^ aULF OF ST.LAWHENCE 




'an lah 



^ BRITISH COLONIES 

WHEN INDEPENDENCE WAS DECLARED 

1776 




125 



CHAPTER XI 

THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 

129. When the 10th of May, 1775, came, the colonists had 
ceased to petition and had begun to fight. In accordance with 

tlie Massachusetts Bill, Gen- 
eral Thomas Gage had been 
appointed military governor 
of Massachusetts. He reached 
Boston in May, 1774, and 
summoned an assembly to 
meet him at Salem in Octo- 
ber. But, alarmed at the 
angry state of the people, he 
fortilied Boston Neck, — the 
only land approach to the city, 
and countermanded the meet- 
ing. The members, claiming 
that an assembly could not 
be dismissed before it met, 
gave no heed to the procla- 
mation, but gathered at Salem 
and adjourned to Concord 
and then to Cambridge. At 
Cambridge a Committee of 
Safety was chosen and given 

power to call out the troops, 
statue of the Minute Man at Concord ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^j. 

lect ammunition and military stores. A month later at an- 
other meeting, 12,000 " minute men'' were ordered to be 

126 




THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 



127 



enrolled. These minute men were volunteers pledged to be 
ready for service at a minute's notice, and lest 12,000 should 
not be enough, the neighboring colonies were asked to raise 
the number to 20,000. 

130. Concord and Lexington. — Meantime the arming and drill- 
ing went actively on, and powder was procured, and magazines 
of provisions and military stores were collected at Concord, at 



COUNTRY AROUND 
BOSTON 




3 ^ J'/ /- J'oK lit stei^ e o" 






ci3 Hull v^ 

IJjj, rbor -—-— --1 "^ 

" Nnntasket U^i 




Worcester, at Salem, and at many other towns. Aware of this, 
Gage, on the night of April 18, 1775, sent off 800 regulars to 
destroy the stores at Concord, a town some twenty miles from 
Boston. Gage wished to keep this expedition secret, but he 
could not. The fact that the troops were to march became 
known to the patriots in Boston, who determined to warn the 
minute men in the neighborhood. Messengers were accordingly 
stationed at Charlestown and told to ride in every direction and 
rouse the people, the moment they saw lights displayed from 
the tower of the Old North Church in Boston. The instant 



128 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

the British began to march, two lights were hung out in the 
tower, and the messengers sped away to do their work.^ 

The road taken by the British lay through the little village 
of Lexington, and there (so well had the messengers done their 
work), about sunrise, on the morning of the 19th, the British 
came suddenly on a little band of minute men drawn up on 
the green before the meeting house. A call to disperse was 
not obeyed ; whereupon the British fired a volley, killing or 
wounding sixteen minute men, and passed on to Concord. 
There they spiked three cannon, threw some cannon balls and 
powder into the river, destroyed some flour, set fire to the 
courthouse, and started back toward Boston. But " the shot 
heard round the world" had indeed been fired. ^ The news 
had spread far and wide. The minute men came hurrying 
in, and from farmhouses and hedges, from haystacks, and 
from behind trees and stone fences, they poured a deadly 
fire on the retreating British. The retreat soon became a 
flight, and the flight would have ended in capture had they 
not been reenforced by 900 men at Lexington. With the . 
help of these they reached Charlestown Neck by sundown 
and. entered Boston.^ All night long minute men came in 
from every quarter, so that by the morning of April 20th 
great crowds were gathered outside of Charlestown and at 
Roxbury, and shut the British in Boston. 

When the news of Concord and Lexington reached the Green 
Mountain Boys of Vermont, they too took up arms, and, under 
Ethan Allen, captured Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775. 

131. Congress becomes a Governing Body. — The first Con- 
tinental Congress had been chosen by the colonies in 1774, to 
set forth the views of the people, and remonstrate against the 
conduct of the King and Parliament. This Congress, it will 

1 The ride of one of these men, that of Paul Revere, has become best 
known because of Longfellow's poem, Paul Bevere''s Bide. Read it. 

2 Read R. W. Emerson's fine poem, Concord Hymn. 

3 Force's American Archives, Vol. II. ; Hudson's History of Lexing- 
ton, Chaps. 6, 7 ; Phinney's Battle of Lexington; Shattuck's History of 
Concord, Chap. 7. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 129 

be remembered, having done so, fixed May 10, 1775, as the 
day whereon a second Congress should meet to consider the 
results of their remonstrance. But when the day came, Lexing- 
ton and Concord had been fought, all New England was in arms, 
and Congress was asked to adopt the army gathered around 
Boston, and assume the conduct of the war. Congress thus un- 
expectedly became a governing body, and began to do such 
things as each colony could not do by itself. 

132. Origin of the Continental Army. — After a month's delay 
it did adopt the little band of patriots gathered about Boston, 
made it the Continental Army, and elected George Washing- 
ton, then a delegate in Congress, commander in chief. He was 
chosen because of the military skill he had displayed in the 
French and Indian War, and because it was thought necessary 
to have a Virginian for general, Virginia being then the most 
populous of the colonies. 

Washington accepted the trust on June 16, and set out for 
Boston on June 21 ; but he had not ridden twenty miles from 
Philadelphia when he was met by the news of Bunker Hill. 

133. Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. — On a narrow peninsula to 
the north of Boston, and separated from it by a sheet of water 
half a mile wide, was the village of Charlestown; behind it Avere 
two small hills. The nearer of the two to Charlestown was 
Breeds Hill. Just beyond it was Bunker Hill, and as the 
two overlooked Boston and the harbor where the British ships 
lay at anchor, the possession of them was of much importance. 
The Americans, learning of Gage's intention to fortify the 
hills, sent a force of 1200 men, under Colonel Prescott, on the 
night of June 16, to take possession of Bunker Hill. By 
some mistake Prescott passed Bunker Hill, reached Breeds 
Hill, and before dawn had thrown up a large earthwork. The 
moment daylight enabled it to be seen, the British opened fire 
from their ships. But the Americans worked steadily on in 
spite of cannon shot, and by noon had constructed a line of 
intrenchments extending from the earthwork down the hill 
toward the water. Gage might easily have landed men and 

McM. Hist. —8 



130 



STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 



PROSPECT-HILL 



taken this intrenchment in the rear. He instead sent Howe ^ 
and 2500 men over in boats from Boston, to land at the foot 
of the hill and charge straight up its steep side toward the 
Americans on its summit. The Americans were bidden not to 
fire till they saw the whites of the enemy's eyes, and obeyed. 
Not a shot came from their line till the British were within a 
few feet. Then a sheet of flames ran along the breastworks, 
and when the smoke blew away, the British were running 
down the hill in confusion. With great effort the officers ral- 
lied their men and led them up the hill a second time, to be 

again driven back to 
the landing place. 
This fire exhausted 
the powder of the 
Americans, and when 
the British troops 
were brought up for 
the third attack, the 
Americans fell back, 
fighting desperately 
with gunstocks and 
stones. The results of 
this battle were two 
fold. It proved to 
the Americans that the British regulars were not invincible, and 
it proved to the British that the American militia would fight. 
134. "Washington takes Command. — Two weeks after this 
battle Washington reached the army, and on July 3, 1775, 
took command beneath an elm still standing in Cambridge. 
Never was an army in so sorry a plight. There was no 
discipline, and not much more than a third as many men as 
there had been a few weeks before. But the indomitable will 
and sublime patience of Washington triumphed over all diffi- 
culties, and for eight months he kept the British shut up in 

1 General "Wilham Howe had come to Boston with more British troops 
not long before. In October, 1775, he was given chief command. 




BOSTON, 

CIIARLESTOWN.ETC. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 



131 



Boston, wliile he trained and disciplined liis army, and gath- 
ered ammunition and supplies. 

135. Montreal taken. — Meanwhile Congress, fearing that 
Sir Guy Carleton, who was governor of Canada, would invade 
New York by way of Lake Champlain, sent two expeditions 
against him. One, under Eichard Montgomery, went down 
Lake Champlain, and captured Montreal.^ Another, under 
Benedict Arnold, forced its way through the dense woods of 
Maine, and after dreadful sufferings reached Quebec. There 
Montgomery joined Arnold, and on the night of December 31, 

1775, the two armies assaulted Quebec, the most strongly 
fortified city in America, and actually entered it. But Mont- 
gomery was killed, Arnold was 

wounded, the attack failed, and, 
six months later, the Americans 
were driven from Canada. 

136. The British driven from 
Boston, March 17, 1776. — After 
eight months of seeming idle- 
ness, Washington, early in March, 

1776, seized Dorchester Heights 
on the south side of Boston, for- 
tified them, and so gave Howe 
his choice of fighting or retreat- 
ing, right he could not; for the 
troops, remembering the dreadful 
day at Bunker Hill, were afraid 
to attack intrenched Americans. 
Howe thereupon evacuated Bos- 
ton and sailed with his army for Halifax, March 17, 1776. 
Washington felt sure that the British would next attack New 
York, so he moved his army there in April, 1776, and placed it 
on the Brooklyn hills. 

137. Independence resolved on. — Just one year had now 
passed since the memorable fights at Concord and Lexington. 

1 For map, see p. 133. 




Bunker Hill Monument 



132 STKUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

During this year the colonies had been solemnly protesting 
that they had no thought of independence and desired nothing 
so much as reconciliation with the King. But the King mean- 
time had done things which prevented any reconciliation: 

1. He had issued a proclamation declaring the Americans to 

be rebels. 

2. He had closed their ports and warned foreign nations not 

to trade with them. 

3. He had hired 17,000 Hessians ^ with whom to subdue 

them. 

These things made further obedience to the King impossible, 
and May 15, 1776, Congress resolved that it was " necessary 
to suppress every kind of authority under the crown," and 
asked the colonies to form governments of their own and so 
become states. 

On the 7th of June, Richard Henry Lee, acting under in- 
structions from Virginia, offered this resolution : 



Prompt action in so serious a matter was not to be expected, 
and Congress put it off till July 1. Meanwhile Thomas Jef- 
ferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and 
Robert R. Livingston were appointed to write a declaration 
of independence and have it ready in case it was wanted. As 
Jefferson happened to be the chairman of the committee, the 

1 The Hessians were soldiers from Hesse and other small German 
states. 




CA3IPAIGXS OF 
1775-1776 

SCALE OF MILES 



134 



STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 



duty of writing the declaration was given to him. July 2, 
Congress passed Lee's resolution, and what had been the United 
Colonies became free and independent states. 

138. Independence declared. — Independence having thus 
been decreed, the next step was to announce the fact to the 
world. As Jefferson says in the opening of his declaration, 
"When, in the course of human events, it becomes neces- 
sary for one people to dissolve the political bands which 




The Pennsylvania Statehouse, or Independence Halli 

'have connected them with another ... a decent respect to 
the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare 
the causes which impel them to the separation." It was 
this "decent respect to the opinions of mankind," there- 
fore, which now led Congress, on July 4, 1776, to adopt the 
Declaration of Independence, and to send copies to the states. 
Pennsylvania got her copy first, and at noon on July 8 it was 

1 From the Columbian Magazine of July, 1787. The tower faces the 
"Statehouse yard." The posts are along Chestnut Street. For the his- 
tory of the building, read F. M. Etting's Independence Hall. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 



135 




The royal arms 



read to a vast crowd of citizens in the Statehouse yard.^ 
When the reading was finished, the people went off to pull 
down the royal arms in the 
court room, while the great 
bell in the tower, the bell 
which had been cast twenty- 
four years before with the 
prophetic words upon its side, 
" Proclaim liberty through- 
out the land unto all the in- 
habitants thereof," rang out 
a joyful peal, for then were 
announced to the world the new political truths, "that all 
men are created equal," and "that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights," and "that among 
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 

139. The Retreat up the Hudson. — A few days later the 
Declaration was read to the army at New York. The wisdom 
of "Washington in going to New York was soon manifest, for 
in July General Howe, with a British army of 25,000 men, 
encamped on Staten Island. In August he crossed to Long 
Island, and was making ready to besiege the army on Brooklyn 
Heights, when, one dark and foggy night, Washington, leaving 
his camp fires burning, crossed with his army to New York. 

Howe followed, drove him foot by foot up the Hudson from 
New York to White Plains ; carried Fort Washington, on the 
New York shore, by storm (November 16, 177G) ; and sent a 
force across the Hudson under cover of darkness and storm to 
capture Port Lee. But the British were detected in the very 
nick of time, and the Americans, leaving their fires burning 
and their tents standing, fled towards Newark, N.J. 

140. The Retreat across the Jerseys. — Washington, mean- 
while, had gone from White Plains to Hackensack in New 
Jersey, leaving 7000 men under Charles Lee in New York state 

1 The declaration was read from a wooden platform put up there in 
1769 to enable David Rittenhouse to observe a transit of Venus. 



136 



STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 



at North Castle. These men he 
now ordered Lee to bring over to 
Hackensack, but the jealous and 
mutinous Lee refused to obey. 
This forced Washington to begin 
his famous retreat across the Jer- 
seys, going first to New- 
ark, then to New Bruns- 
wick, then to Trenton, 
and then over the Dela- 
ware into Pennsylvania, 
with the British 
under Cornwallis 
in hot pursuit. 




141. The Surprise at Trenton. — Lee crossed the Hudson and 
went to Morristown, where a just punishment for his disobe- 
dience speedily overtook him. One night while he was at an 
inn outside of his lines, some British dragoons made him a 
prisoner of war. The capture of Lee left Sullivan in com- 
mand, and by him the troops were hurried off to join Washing- 
ton. Thus reenforced, Washington turned on the enemy, and 



TFIE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 137 

on Christmas night in a blinding snowstorm he recrossed the 
Delaware, marched nine miles to Trenton, surprised a force of 
Hessians, took 1000 prisoners, and went back to Pennsylvania. 

The effect of this victory was tremendous. At first the 
people could not believe it, and, to convince them, the Hessians 
had to be marched through the streets of Philadelphia, and 
one of their flags was sent to Baltimore (whither Congress had 
fled from Philadelphia), and hung up in the hall of Congress. 
When the people were convinced of the truth of the report, 
their joy was unbounded; militia was hurried forward, the 
Jerseymen gathered at Morristown, money was raised; the 
New England troops, whose time of service was out, were per- 
suaded to stay six weeks longer, and, December 30, 1776, 
Washington again entered Trenton. 

Meantime Cornwallis, who had heard of the capture of the 
Hessians, came thundering down from New Brunswick with 
8000 men and hemmed in the Americans between his arrny 
and the Delaware. But on the night of January 2, 1777, 
Washington slipped away, passed around Cornwallis, hurried 
to Princeton, and there, on the morning of January 3, put to 
rout three regiments of British regulars. Cornwallis, who was 
not aware that the Americans had left his front till he heard 
the firing in his rear, fell back to New Brunswick, while 
Washington marched unmolested to Morristown, where he 
spent the rest of the winter. 

142. The Capture of Philadelphia. — Late in May, 1777, 
Washington entered New York state. But Howe paid little 
attention to this movement, for he had fully determined to 
attack and capture Philadelphia, and on July 23 set sail 
from New York. As the fleet moved southward, its progress 
was marked by signal fires along the Jersey coast, and the 
news of its position was carried inland by messengers. At 
the end of a week the fleet was off the entrance of Delaware 
Bay. But Lord Howe fearing to sail up the river, the fleet 
went to sea and was lost to sight. Washington, who had 
hurried southward to Philadelphia, was now at a loss what to 



138 



STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 




*4{e;uhns 



THE BATTLES 

AROUND 

PHIL.ADELPHIA 



do, and was just about to go back to New York when he heard 
that the British were coming up Chesapeake Bay, and at once 
marched to Wilmington, Del. 

It was the 25th of August that Howe landed his men and 
began moving toward Washington, who, lest the British should 
push by him, fell back from Wilmington, to a place called 
Chadds Pord on the Brandy wine, where, on September 11, 1777, 
a battle was fought.^ The Americans were defeated and re- 
treated in good order to Chester, and the next day Washington 
entered Philadelphia. But public opinion demanded that 
another battle should be fought before the city was given up, 
and after a few days he recrossed the Schuylkill, and again 
faced the enemy. A violent storm ruined the ammunition of 
both armies and prevented a battle, and the Americans re- 
treated across the Schuylkill at a point farther up the stream. 

1 Among the wounded in this battle was a brilliant young Frenchman, 
the Marquis de Lafayette, who, early in 1777, came to America and 
offered his services to Congress as a volunteer without pay. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 



139 



Congress, wliicli had returned to Philadelphia from Balti- 
more, now fled to Lancaster and later to York, Pa., and 
(September 26, 1777) Howe entered Philadelphia in triumph. 
October 4, Washington attacked him at Germantown, but was 
repulsed, and went into 
winter quarters at Valley 
Forge. 

143. New York invaded. 
— Though Washington 
had been defeated in the 
battles around Philadel- 
phia, and had been forced 
to give that city to the 
British, his campaign 
made it possible for the 
Americans to win another 
glorious victory in the 
north. At the beginning 
of 1777 the British had 
planned to conquer New 
York and so cut the East- 
ern States off from the 
Middle States. To accom- 
plish this, a great army 
under John Burgoyne was 
to come up to Albany by 
way of Lake Champlain. 
Another, under Colonel St. Leger, was to go up the St. Law- 
rence and Lake Ontario to Oswego and come down the Mohawk 
valley to Albany ; while the third army, under Howe, was to 
go up the Hudson from New York and meet Burgoyne at 
Albany. True to this plan, Burgoyne came up Lake Cham- 
plain, took Ticonderoga (July 5), and, driving General Schuy- 
ler before him, reached Fort Edward late in July. There he 
heard that the Americans had collected some supplies at Ben- 
nington, a little village in the southwestern corner of Vermont, 




140 



STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 



whither he sent 1000 men. But Colonel John Stark met and 
utterly destroyed them on August 16. Meanwhile St. Leger, 
as planned, had landed at Oswego, and 
on August 3 laid siege to Fort Stan- 
wix, which then stood on the site of 
the present city of Rome, N.Y. On 
the 6th the garrison sallied forth, at- 
tacked a part of St. Leger's camp, and 
carried off five British flags. These 
they hoisted upside down on their ram- 
parts, and high above them raised a 
new flag which Congress had adopted in June, and which was 
then for the first time flung to the breeze. 

144. Our National Flag. — It was our national flag, the stars 
and stripes, and was made of a piece of a blue jacket, some 
strips of a white shirt, and some scraps of old red flannel.^ 




India 



Company 




1 The flags used by the continental troops between 1775 and 1777 were 
of at least a dozen different patterns. A colored plate showing most of 
them is given in Preble's Our Flag, p. 142. In 
1776, in January, Washington used one at Cam- 
bridge wliich seems to have been suggested by the 
ensign of the East India Company. That of this 
company was a combi- 
nation of thirteen hori- 
zontal red and white 
stripes (seven red and 
six white) and the red 
cross of St. George. That 
of Washington was the 
same, with the British 
Union Jack substituted 
for the cross of St. 
George. After the Dec- 
laration of Independence, the British Jack was out of place on our flag ; 
and in June, 1777, Congress adopted a union of thirteen white stars in a 
circle, on a blue ground, in place of the British Union. 

After Vermont and Kentucky were admitted, in 1791 and 1792, the 
stars and stripes were each increased to fifteen. In 1818, the original 
number of stripes was restored, and since that time each new state, 
when admitted, is represented by a star and not by a stripe. 




Flag of the 
United Colonies 




British Union Jack 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 141 

145. Capture of Burgoyne. — When Sclmyler heard of the 
siege of Fort Stanwix, he sent Benedict Arnold to relieve it, 
and St. Leger fled to Oswego. Then was the time for the expe- 
dition from New York to have hurried to Burgoyne's aid. But 
Howe and his army were then at sea. No help was given to 
Burgoyne, who, after suffering defeats at Bemis Heights (Sep- 
tember 19) and at Stillwater (October 7), retreated to Saratoga, 
where (October 17, 1777) he surrendered his army of 6000 men 
to General Horatio Gates, whom Congress, to its shame, had 
just put in the place of Schuyler. Gates deserves no credit for 
the capture. Arnold and Daniel Morgan deserve it, and deserve 
much ; for, judged by its results, Saratoga was one of 
the great battles of the world. The results of the sur- 
render were four fold : 

1. It saved New York state. 

2. It destroyed the plan for the war. 

3. It induced the King to offer us peace with 

representation in Parliament, or any- 
thing else we wanted except independ- 
ence 

Flag of the United 

4. It secured for us the aid of France. states, 1777 

146. Valley Forge. — The winter at Valley Forge marks the 
darkest period of the war. It was a season of discourage- 
ment, when mean spirits grew bold. Some officers of the 
army formed a plot, called from one of them the "Conway 
cabal," to displace Washington and put Gates in command. 
The country people, tempted by British gold, sent their pro- 
visions into Philadelphia and not to Valley Forge. There the 
suffering of the half-clad, half-fed, ill-housed patriots surpasses 
description. 

But the darkest hour is just before the dawn. Then it was 
that an able Prussian soldier. Baron Steuben, joined the army, 
turned the camp into a school, drilled the soldiers, and made 
the army better than ever. Then it was that France acknowL 
edged our independence, and joined us in the war. 




142 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

147. France acknowledges our Independence. — In October, 
1776, Congress sent Benjamin Franklin to Paris to try to per- 
suade the French King to help us in the war. Till Burgoyne 
surrendered and Great Britain offered peace, Franklin found 
all his efforts vain.^ But now, when it seemed likely that the 
states might again be brought under the British crown, the 
French King promptly acknowledged us to be an independent 
nation, made a treaty of alliance and a treaty of commerce 
(February 6, 1778), and soon had a fleet on its way to help us. 

148. The British leave Philadelphia. — Hearing of the ap- 
proach of the French fleet. Sir Henry Clinton, who in May had 
succeeded Howe in command^ left Philadelphia and hurried to 
the defense of New York. Washington followed, and, coming 
up with the rear guard of the enemy at Monmouth in New 
Jersey, fought a battle (June 28, 1778), and would have gained 
a great victory had not the traitor, Charles Lee, been in com- 
mand.^ Without any reason he suddenly ordered a retreat, 
which was fortunately prevented from becoming a rout by 
Washington, who came on the field in time to stop it. 

After the battle the British hurried on to New York, where 
Washington partially surrounded them by stretching out his 
army from Morristown in New Jersey to West Point on the 
Hudson.^ 

149. Stony Point. — In hope of drawing Washington away 
from New York, Clinton in 1779 sent a marauding party to 
plunder and ravage the farms and towns of Connecticut. But 
Washington soon brought it back by dispatching Anthony 
Wayne to capture Stony Point, which he did (July, 1779) by 
one of the most brilliant assaults in military history. 

150. Indian Raids. — That nothing might be wanting to make 
the suffering of the patriots as severe as possible, the Indians 

1 For an account of Franklin in France, see McMaster's With the 
Fathers, pp. 253-270. 

2 After remaining a prisoner in the hands of the British from Decem- 
ber, 1776, to April, 1778, Lee had been exchanged for a British officer. 

3 See map on p. 136. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 143 

were let loose. Led by a Tory ^ named Butler, a band of whites 
and Indians of the Seneca tribe of the Six Nations ^ marched 
from Fort Niagara to Wyoming Valley in northeastern Penn- 
sylvania, and there perpetrated one of the most awful mas- 
sacres in history. Another party, led by a son of Butler, 
repeated the horrors of Wyoming in Cherry Valley, N.Y. 

151. George Rogers Clark. — Meantime the British com- 
mander at Detroit tried hard to stir up the Indians of the AVest 
to attack the whole frontier at the same moment. Hearing of 
this, George Rogers Clark of Virginia marched into the enemy's 
country, and in two fine campaigns in 1778-1779 beat the 
British, and conquered the country from the Ohio to the 
Great Lakes and from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi. 

152. Sullivan's Expedition. — In 1779 it seemed so important 
to punish the Indians for the Wyoming and Cherry Valley 
massacres that General Sullivan with an army invaded the ter- 
ritory of the Six Nations, in central New York, burned some 
forty Indian villages, and utterly destroyed the Indian power 
in that state. 

153. The South invaded. — For a year and more there had 
been a lull in military operations on the part of the British. 
But they now began an attack in a new quarter. Having, 
failed to conquer New England in 1775-1776, having failed to 
conquer the Middle States in 1776-1777, they sent an expedition 
against the South in December, 1778. Success attended it. 
Savannah was captured, Georgia was conquered, and the royal 
governor reinstated. Later, in 1779, General Lincoln, with a 
French fleet to help him, attempted to recapture Savannah, 
but was driven off with dreadful loss of life. 

These successes in Georgia so greatly encouraged the Brit- 
ish that in the spring of 1780 Clinton led an expedition 
against South Carolina, and (May 12) easily captured Charles- 

1 Not all the colonists desired independence. Those who remained 
loyal to the King were called Tories. 

2 By this time the Five Nations had admitted the Tuscaroras to their 
confederacy and had thus become the Six Nations. 



144 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

ton, with Lincoln and liis army. By dint of great exertions 
another army was quickly raised in North Carolina, and the 
command given to Gates by Congress. He was utterly unfit 
for it, and (August 16, 1780) was defeated and his army almost 
destroyed at Camden by Lord Cornwallis. Never in the whole 
course of the war had the American army suffered such a 
crushing defeat. All military resistance in South Carolina 
was at an end, save such as was offered by gallant bands of 
patriots led by Marion, Sumter, and Pickens. 

154. The Treason of Arnold. — The outlook was now dark 
enough; but it was made darker still by the treachery of 
Benedict Arnold. No officer in the Eevolutionary army was 
more trusted. His splendid march through the wilderness to 
Quebec, his bravery in the attack on that city, the skill and 
courage he displayed at Saratoga, had marked him out as a 
man full of promise. But he lacked that moral courage with- 
out which great abilities count for nothing. In 1778 he was 
put in command of Philadelphia, and while there so abused 
his office that he was sentenced to be reprimanded by Wash- 
ington. This aroused a thirst for revenge, and led him to form 
a scheme to give up the Hudson Kiver to the enemy. With 
this end in view, he asked Washington in July, 1780, for the 
command of West Point, the great stronghold on the Hudson, 
obtained it, and at once made arrangements to surrender it 
to Clinton. The British agent in the negotiation was Major 
John Andre, who one day in September met Arnold near 
Stony Point. But most happily, as he was going back to New 
York, three Americans ^ stopped him near Tarrytown, searched 
him, and in his stockings found some papers in the handwriting 
of Arnold. News of the arrest of Andre reached Arnold in 
time to enable him to escape to the British; he served with 
them till the end of the war, and then sought a refuge in 
England. Andre was tried as a spy, found guilty, and hanged. 

155. Victory at Kings Mountain. — After the defeat of 
Gates at Camden, the British overran South Carolina, and 

1 The names of these men were Paulding, Williams, and Van Wart. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 



145 




in the course of 

their marauding a 

of 1100 Tories 



'M\ MmlhX ' ' 

-y. \ f / 

" ^i.yhmne /^\( marched to Kings Moun- 
tain, on the border line 
between the two Caro- 
linas. There the hardy 
mountaineers attacked 
them (Oct. 7, 1780) and 
killed, wounded, or captured the entire band. 

156. Victory at the Cowpens. — Meantime a third army was 
raised for use in the South and placed under the command of 
McM. Hist.— 9 



146 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

Nathanael Greene, than whom there was no abler general in 
the American army. With Greene was Daniel Morgan, who 
had distinguished himself at Saratoga, and by him a British 
force under Tarleton was attacked January 17, 1781, at a 
place called the Cowpens, and not only defeated, but almost 
destroyed. 

Enraged at these reverses, Cornwallis took the field and 
hurried to attack Greene, who, too weak to fight him, began 
a masterly retreat of 200 miles across Carolina to Guilford 
Courthouse, where he turned about and fought. He was 
defeated, but Cornwallis was unable to go further, and retreated 
to Wilmington, N.C, with Greene in hot pursuit. Leaving 
the enemy at Wilmington, Greene went back to South Caro- 
lina, and by September, 1781, had driven the British into 
Charleston and Savannah. 

Cornwallis, as soon as Greene left him, hurried to Peters- 
burg, Va. A British force during the winter and spring had 
been plundering and ravaging in Virginia, under the traitor 
Arnold. Cornwallis took command of this, sent Arnold to 
Kew York, and had begun a campaign against Lafayette, when 
orders reached him to seize and fortify some Virginian seaport. 

157. Surrender of Cornwallis. — Thus instructed, Cornwallis 
selected Yorktown, and began to fortify it strongly. This was 
early in August, 1781. On the 14th Washington heard with 
delight that a French fleet was on its way to the Chesapeake, 
and at once decided to hurry to Virginia, and surround Corn- 
wallis by land while the French cut him off by sea. Prepara- 
tions were made with such secrecy and haste that Washington 
had reached Philadelphia while Clinton supposed he was about 
to attack New York. Clinton then sent Arnold on a raid into 
Connecticut to burn New London, in the hope of forcing Wash- 
ington to return. But Washington kept straight on, hemmed 
Cornwallis in by land and sea, and October 19, 1781, forced the 
British general to surrender. 

158. The War on the Sea. — The first step towards the foun- 
dation of an American navy was taken on October 13, 1775. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 147 

Congress, hearing that two British ships laden with powder 
and guns were on their way from England to Quebec, ordered 
two swift sailing vessels to be fitted out for the purpose of 
capturing them. Two months later Congress ordered thirteen 
cruisers to be built, and named the officers to command them. 

Meantime some merchant ships were purchased and collected 
at Philadelphia, from which city, one morning in January, 1776, 
a fleet of eight vessels set sail. As they were about to weigh 
anchor, John Paul Jones, a lieutenant on the flagship, flung to 
the breeze a yellow silk flag on which were a pine tree and a 
coiled rattlesnake, with this motto : " Don't tread on me." This 
was the first flag ever hoisted on an American man-of-war. 

Ice in the Delaware kept the fleet in the river till the middle 
of February, when it went to sea, sailed southward to New 
Providence in the Bahamas, captured the town, brought off 
the governor, some powder and cannon, and after taking 
several prizes got safely back to New London. 

Soon after the squadron had left the Delaware, the Lexing- 
ton, Captain John Barry in command, while cruising off the 
Virginia coast, fell in with the Edward, a British vessel, and 
after a spirited action captured her. This was the first prize 
brought in by a commissioned officer of the American navy.^ 

In March, 1776, Congress began to issue letters of marque, 
or licenses to citizens to engage in war against the enemy ; 
and then the sea fairly swarmed with privateers. 

1 John Barry was a native of Ireland ; he came to America at thirteen, 
entered the merchant marine, and at twenty-five was captain of a ship. 
At the opening of the war Barry offered his services to Congress, and in 
February, 1776, was put in command of the Lexington. After his victory 
he was transferred to the twenty-eight-gun frigate Effingham, and in 1777 
(while blockaded in the Delaware) with twenty-seven men in four boats 
captured and destroyed a ten-gun schooner and four transports. When 
the British captured Philadelphia, Barry took the Effingham up the river ; 
but she was burned by the enemy. In 1778, in command of the thirty- 
two-gun frigate Ealeigh, he sailed from Boston, fell in with two British 
frigates, and after a fight was forced to run ashore in Penobscot Bay. 
Barry and his crew escaped, and in 1781 carried Laurens to France in the 
frigate Alliance. On the way out he took a privateer, and while cruising 



148 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

In 1777 the American flag was seen for the first time in 
European waters, when a little squadron of three ships set 
sail from Nantes in France, and after cruising on the Bay of 
Biscay went twice around Ireland and came back to France 
with fifteen prizes. As France had not then acknowledged 
our independence, they were ordered to depart. Two did so ; 
but one of them, the Lexington, was captured by the British, 
and the other, the Reprisal, was wrecked at sea. 

159. Paul Jones. — Meanwhile our commissioners in France, 
Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, fitted out a cruiser called 
the Surprise. She sailed from Dunkirk on May 1, 1777, and 
the next week was back with a British packet as a prize. For 
this violation of French neutrality she was seized. But another 
ship, the Revenge, was quickly secured, which scoured the Brit- 
ish waters, and actually entered two British ports before she 
sailed for America. The exploits of these and a score of other 
ships are cast into the shade, however, by the fights of John 
Paul Jones, the great naval hero of the Revolution. He sailed 
from Portsmouth, N.H., November 1, 1777, refitted his ship in 
the harbor of Brest, and in 1778 began one of the most memo- 
rable cruises in our naval history. In the short space of 
twenty-eight da3^s he sailed into the Irish Channel, destroyed 
four vessels, set fire to the shipping in the port of Whitehaven, 
fought and captured the British armed schooner Drake, sailed 
around Ireland with his prize, and reached France in safety. 

For a year he was forced to be idle. But at last, in 1779, 
he was given command of a squadron of five vessels, and in 
August sailed from France. Passing along the west coast of 
Ireland, the fleet went around the north end of Scotland and 
down the east coast, capturing and destroying vessel after ves- 

on the way home captured the Atalanta and the Trepassey after a hard 
fight. As Barry brought in the first capture by a commissioned officer of 
tlie United States navy, so he fought the last action of the war in 1782 ; 
but the enemy escaped. When the navy was reorganized in 1794, Barry 
was made senior captain, with the title of Commodore. In 1798 he com- 
manded the frigate United States in the war with France. He died in 1803. 




THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 149 

sel on the way. On the night of September 23, 1779, Jones 
(in his ship, named Bonliomme 
Richard in honor of Franklin's 
famous Poor RicharcCs Alma- 
nac) fell in with the Serapis, a 
British frigate. The two ships 
grappled, and, lashed side by 

side in the moonlight, fought /^S^SL ^ ^ -J^k\ 

one of the most desperate bat- 
tles in naval annals. At the 
end of three hours the Sera- 
pis surrendered, but the Bon- 
liomme Richard was a wreck, 
and next morning, giving a 
sudden roll, she filled and 

plunged bow first to the Benjamin Franklin 

bottom of the North Sea. Jones sailed away in the Serapis. 
In the Revolution the British lost 102 vessels of war, while 
the Americans lost 24 — most of their navy. 

160. Revolutionary Heroes. — It is not possible to mention all 
tlie revolutionary heroes entitled to our grateful remembrance. 
We should, however, remember Lafayette, Steuben, Pulaski, and 
DeKalb, foreigners who fought for us ; Samuel Adams and James 
Otis of Massachusetts, and Patrick Henry of Virginia, who spoke 
for freedom; Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution; 
Putnam who fought and Warren who died at Bunker Hill; 
Mercer who fell at Princeton ; Nathan Hale, the martyr spy ; 
Herkimer, Knox, Moultrie, and that long list of noble patriots 
whose names have already been mentioned. 

161. The Treaty of Peace. — The story is told that when 
Lord North, the Prime Minister of England, heard of the sur- 
render of Yorktown, he threw up his hands and said, "It is 
all over." He was right ; it was all over, and on September 3, 
1783, a treaty of peace (negotiated by Benjamin Franklin, 
John Adams, and John Jay) was signed at Paris. 

Meantime the British, in accordance with a preliminary 



150 STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

treaty of peace signed in November, 1782, were slowly leaving 
the country, till on November 25, 1783, the last of them sailed 
from New York.^ Washington now resigned his commission, 
and in December went home to Mt. Vernon. 

162. Bounds of the United States. — By the treaty of 1783 the 
boundary of the United States was declared to be about what is 
the present northern boundary from the mouth of the St. Croix 
River in Maine to the Lake of the Woods, and then due west to 
the Mississippi (which was, of course, an impossible line, for 
that river does not rise in Canada) ; then down the Mississippi 
to 31° north latitude ; then eastward along that parallel of lati- 
tude to the Apalachicola River, and then by what is the present 
north boundary of Florida to the Atlantic. 

But these bounds were not secured without a diplomatic 
struggle. As soon as France joined us in 1778, she began to 
persuade Spain to follow her example. Very little persuasion 
was needed, for the opportunity to regain the two Floridas 
(which Spain had been forced to give to England in 1763) 
was too good to be lost. In June, 1779, therefore, Spain 
declared war on England, and sent the governor of Lower 
Louisiana into West Florida, where he captured Pensacola, 
Mobile, Baton Rouge, and Natchez. Made bold by this suc- 
cess, Spain, which cared nothing for the United States, next 
determined to conquer the region north of Florida and east of 
the Mississippi, the Indian country of the proclamation of 
1763. (See map on p. 111.) The commandant at St. Louis ^ 
was, therefore, sent to seize the post at St. Joseph on Lake 
Michigan, built by La Salle in 1679. He succeeded, and tak- 
ing possession of the country in the name of Spain, carried 
off the English flags as evidence of conquest. Now when the 
time came to make the treaty of peace, Spain insisted that 

1 They did not leave Staten Island in New York Bay till a week later. 
For an account of the evacuation of New York see McMaster's With the 
Fathers, pp. 271-280. 

2 It will be remembered that Spain now held Louisiana, or the country 
west of the Mississippi. (See p. 91.) 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 



151 



she must have East and West Florida and the country west 
of the Alleghany Mountains, because she had conquered it. 
France partly supported Spain in this demand. The country 
north of the Ohio she proposed should be given to Great 
Britain, and the country south to Spain and the United States. 




tThe American commissioners, seeing in all this a desire to 
bound the United States on the west by the Alleghany Moun- 
tains, made the treaty with Great Britain secretly, and secured 
the Mississippi as our western limit. 



152 STRUGGLE FOK RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 

Britain, and insisting that West Plorida must have the old 
boundary given in 1764/ and not 31° as provided in our treaty 
of peace, she seized and held the country by force of arms ; 
and for twelve years the Spanish flag waved over Baton Bouge 
and Natchez.^ 

The area of the territory thus acquired by the United 
States was 827,844 square miles, and the population not far 
from 3,250,000. Apparently an era of great prosperity and 
happiness was before the people. But unhappily the govern- 
ment they had established in time of war was quite unfit to 
unite them and bring them prosperity in time of peace. 




Washington's sword 



SUMMARY 

1. In accordance with one of the Intolerable Acts, General Gage became 

governor of Massachusetts in 1774. 

2. Seeing that the people were gathering stores and cannon, he attempted 

to destroy the stores, and so brought on the battles of Lexington 
and Concord, which opened the War for Independence. 

3. The Congress of colonial delegates, which met in 1774 and adjourned 

to meet again in 1775, assembled soon after these battles, and 
assumed the conduct of the war, adopted the army around Boston, 
and made Washington commander in chief. 

4. Washington reached Boston soon after the battle of Bunker Hill, 

which taught the British that the Americans would fight, and he 
besieged the British in Boston. In March, 1776, they left the city 
by water, and Washington moved his army to the neighborhood of 
New York. 

5. There he was attacked by the British, and was driven up the Hudson 

River to White Plains. Thence he crossed into New Jersey, only to 
be driven across the state and into Pennsylvania. 

1 See p. 110. 

2 Read Hinsdale's Old Northwest, \)i>. 170-191; McMaster's With the 
Fathers, pp. 280-292. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 



153 



10, 



11. 



12. 



On Christmas night, 1776, he recrossed the Delaware to Trenton, and 
the next morning won a victory over tlie Hessians. Then on Janu- 
ary 3, 1777, he fought the battle of Princeton, and he spent the 
remainder of the winter at Morristown. 

In July, 1777, Howe sailed from New York for Philadelphia, to which 
city Washington hurried by land. The Americans were defeated at 
the Brandywine, and the city fell into the hands of Howe. Wash- 
ington passed the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge. 

Meantime an attempt had been made to cut the states in two by 
getting possession of New York state from Lake Champlain to New 
York city, and an army under Burgoyne came down from Canada. 
He and his troops were captured at Saratoga. 

In February, 1778, France made a treaty of alliance with us and sent 
over a fleet. Fearing this would attack New York, Clinton left 
Philadelphia with his army. Washington followed from Valley 
Forge, overtook the enemy at Monmouth, and fought a battle there. 
The British then went on to New York, while Washington stretched 
out his army from Morristown to West Point. 

So matters remained till December, 1778, when the British attacked 
the Southern States. .They conquered Georgia in the winter of 
1778-1779. 

In the spring of 1780 they attacked South Carolina and captured 
General Lincoln. Gates then took the field, was defeated, and suc- 
ceeded by Greene, who after many vicissitudes drove the British 
forces in South Carolina and Georgia into Charleston and Savan- 
nah, during 1781. 
Meantime a force sent against Greene under Cornwallis undertook to 
fortify Yorktown and hold it, and while so engaged was surrounded 
by Washington and the French fleet and forced to surrender. 



I 

p ^ 

K 
H 



1775. Concord and Lexington. 

Continental Army formed. 

Washington, commander in chief. 

Battle of Bunker Hill. 
1775-1776. Siege of Boston. 
1770. Evacuation of Boston. 



1775. Arnold's march to Quebec. 
Montgomery's march to Montreal. 
Capture of Montreal. 

1776. Defeat and death of Montgomery at Quebec. 
Americans return to Ticonderoga. 



1 Continued on the next page. 



154 



STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN 



1776. Howe sails for New York. 
Washington marches to New York. 
The Declaration of Independence. 
Capture of New York. 

Retreat across the Jerseys. 
Surprise at Trenton. 

1777. Battle of Princeton. 
Washington at Morristown. 

Burgoyne and St. Leger move down from Canada to 
capture New York state and cut the colonies in two. 

St. Leger defeated at Fort Stanwix. 

Burgoyne captured at Saratoga. 

Howe sails from New York to Chesapeake Bay and 
moves against Philadelphia. 

Washington moves from New York to Philadelphia. 

Battles of Brandywine and Germantown. 

Philadelphia captured by the British. 
1777-1778. Americans winter at Valley Forge. 

1778. Alliance with France. 

Fleet and army sent from France. 

Clinton leaves Philadelphia and hurries to New York. 

Washington follows him from Valley Forge. 

Battle of Monmouth. 

Washington on the Hudson. 



1778. The South invaded. 

Savannah captured and Georgia overran. 

1779. Clinton ravages Connecticut to draw Washington away 

from the Hudson. 
Wayne captures Stony Point. 
Lincoln attacks Savannah. 

1780. Clinton captures Charleston. 
Campaign of Gates in South Carolina. 
Battles of Camden and Kings Mountain. 
Treason of Arnold. 

1781. Greene in command in the South. 
Battle of the Cowpens. 

March of Cornwallis from Charleston. 

Battle of Guilford Courthouse. 

Cornwallis goes to Wilmington and Greene to South 
Carolina. 

Cornwallis goes to Yorktown. 

Washington hurries from New York. 

Surrender of Cornwallis. 
1782-1783. Peace negotiations at Paris. 
1783. Evacuation of New York. 



THE STRUGGLE FOB A GOVERNMENT 

CHAPTER XII 

UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 

163. How the Colonies became States. — When the Continen- 
tal Congress met at Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, a letter 
was received from Massachusetts, where the people had penned 
up the governor in Boston and had taken the government 
into their own hands, asking what they should do. Congress 
replied that no obedience was due to the Massachusetts Eegu- 
lating Act or to the governor, and advised the people to 
make a temporary government to last till the King should 
restore the old charter. Similar advice was given the same 
year to New Hampshire and South Carolina, for it was not 
then supposed that the quarrel with the mother country would 
end in separation. But by the spring of 1776 all the govern- 
ors of the thirteen colonies had either fled or been thrown 
into prison. This put an end to colonial government, and 
Congress, seeing that reconciliation was impossible, (May 15, 
1776) advised all the colonies to form governments for them- 
selves (p. 132). Thereupon they adopted constitutions, and 
by doing so turned themselves from British colonies into sov- 
ereign and independent states.-^ 

164. Articles of Confederation. — While the colonies were 
thus gradually turning themselves into the states, the Conti- 

1 All but two made new constitutions ; but Connecticut and Rhode 
Island used their old charters, the one till 1818, the other till 1842. Ver- 
mont also formed a constitution, but she was not admitted to the Con- 
gress (p. 243). 

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157 



158 THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 

nental Congress was trying to bind them into a union by 
means of a sort of general constitution called "Articles of 
Confederation." By order of Congress, Articles had been 
prepared and presented by a committee in July, 1776, but it 
was not till November 17, 1777, that they were sent out to 
the states for adoption. Now it must be remembered that 
six states, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, North Caro- 
lina, South Carolina, and Georgia, claimed that their "from 
sea to sea " charters gave them lands between the mountains 
and the Mississippi Eiver, and that one, New York, had 
bought the Indian title to land in the Ohio valley. It must 
also be remembered that the other six states did not have 
" from sea to sea " charters, and so had no claims to western 
lands. As three of them. New Jersey, Delaware, and Mary- 
land, held that the claims of their sister states were invalid, 
they now refused to adopt the Articles unless the land so 
claimed was given to Congress to be used to pay for the cost 
of the Revolution. For this action they gave four reasons : 

1. The Mississippi valley had been discovered, explored, 

settled, and owned by France. 

2. England had never owned any land there till France ceded 

the country in 1763. 

3. When at last England had got it, in 1763, the King drew 

the "proclamation line," turned the. Mississippi valley 
into the Indian country, and so cut off any claim of the 
colonies in consequence of English ownership. 

4. The western lands were therefore the property of the King, 

and now that the states were in arms against him, his 
lands ought to be seized by Congress and used for the 
benefit of all the states. 

For three years the land-claiming states refused to be con- 
vinced by these arguments. But at length, finding that Mary- 
land was determined not to adopt the Articles till her demands 
were complied with, they began to yield. In February, 1780, 
New York ceded her claims to Congress, and in January, 1781, 



UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 159 

Virginia gave up lior claim to the country north of the Ohio 
River. Maryland had now carried her point, and on March 1, 
1781, her delegates signed the Articles of Confederation. As 
all the other states had ratified the Articles, this act on the 
part of Maryland made them law, and March 2, 1781, Con- 
gress met for the first time under a form of government the 
states were pledged to obey. 

165. Government under the Articles of Confederation. — The 
form of government that went into effect on that day was bad 
from beginning to end. There was no one officer to carry out 
the laws, no court or judge to settle disputed points of law, 
and only a very feeble legislature. Congress consisted of one 
house, presided over by a president elected each year by the 
members from among their own number. The delegates to 
Congress could not be more than seven, nor less than two 
from each state, were elected yearly, could not serve for more 
than three years out of six, and might be recalled at any 
time by the states that sent them. Once assembled on the 
floor of Congress, the delegates became members of a secret 
body. The doors were shut; no spectators were allowed to 
hear what was said; no reports of the debates were taken 
down; but under a strict injunction to secrecy the members 
went on deliberating day after day. All voting was done by 
states, each casting but one vote, no matter how many dele- 
gates it had. The affirmative votes of nine states Avere 
necessary to pass any important act, or, as it was called, 
"ordinance." 

To this body the Articles gave but few powers. Congress 
could declare war, make peace, issue money, keep up an army 
and a navy, contract debts, enter into treaties of commerce, 
and settle disputes between states. But it could not enforce 
a treaty or a law when made, nor lay any tax for any purpose. 

166. Origin of the Public Domain. — In 1784 Massachusetts 
ceded her strip of land in the west, following the example set 
by New York (1780), and Virginia (1781). 

As three states claiming western territory had thus by 1784 



160 THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 

given their land to Congress, that body came into possession 
of the greater part of the vast domain stretching from the 
Lakes to the Ohio and from the Mississippi to Pennsylvania.^ 
Now this public domain, as it was called, was given on certain 
conditions : 

1. That it should be cut up into states. 

2. That these states should be admitted into the Union (when 

they had a certain population) on the same footing as the 
thirteen original states. 

3. That the land should be sold and the money used to pay 

the debts of the United States. 

Congress, therefore, as soon as it had received the deeds to 
the tracts ceded, trusting that the other land-owning states 
would cede their western territory in time, passed a law (in 
1785) to prepare the land for sale by surveying it and marking 
it out into sections, townships, and ranges, and fixed the price 
per acre. 

167. Virginia and Connecticut Reserves. — When Virginia 
made her cession in 1781, she expressly reserved two tracts of 
land north of the Ohio. One, called the Military Lands, lay 
between the Scioto and Miami rivers, and was held to pay 
bounties promised to the Virginia Revolutionary soldiers. The 
other (in the present state of Indiana) was given to General 
George Rogers Clark and his soldiers. A third piece was 
reserved by Connecticut when she ceded her strip in 1786. 
This, called the Western Reserve of Connecticut, stretched 
along the shore of Lake Erie (map, p. 175). In 1800 Con- 
necticut gave up her jurisdiction, or right of government, over 
this reserve in return for the confirmation of land titles she 
had granted. 

168. Ordinance of 1787; Origin of the Territories. — Hardly 
had Congress provided for the sale of the land, when a number 

1 The strip owned by Connecticut had been offered to Congress in 
October, 1780, but not accepted. It still belonged to Connecticut in 1785. 
In 1786 it was again ceded, with certain reservations, and accepted. 



UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 



161 



of Eevolutionary soldiers formed the Ohio Land Company, and 
sent an agent to New York, where Congress was in session, 
and offered to buy 5,000,000 acres on the Ohio River: 1,500,- 
000 acres were for themselves, and 3,500,000 for another com- 




pany called the Scioto Company. The land was gladly sold, 
and as the purchasers were really going to send out settlers, 
it became necessary to establish some kind of government for 
them. On the 13th of July, 1787, therefore, Congress passed 
another very famous law, called the Ordinance of 1787, which 
ordered 



162 THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 

1. That the whole region from the Lakes to the Ohio, and from 

Pennsylvania to the Mississippi, should be called " The 
Territory of the United States northwest of the river 
Ohio." 

2. That it should be cut up into not less than three nor more 

than five states, each of which might be admitted into 
the Union when it had 60,000 free inhabitants. 

3. That within it there was to be neither slavery nor involun- 

tary servitude except in punishment for crime. 

4. That until such time as there were 5000 free male inhabit- 

ants twenty -one years old in the territory, it was to be 
governed by a governor and three judges. They could 
not make laws, but might adopt such as they pleased 
from among the laws in force in the states. After there 
were 5000 free male inhabitants in the territory the peo- 
ple were to elect a house of representatives, which in its 
turn was to elect ten men from whom Congress was to 
select five to form a council. The house and the coun- 
cil were then to elect a territorial delegate to sit in 
Congress with the right of debating, not of voting. The 
governor, the judges, and the secretary were to be elected 
by Congress. The council and house of representatives 
could make laws, but must send them to Congress for 
approval. 

Thus were created two more American institutions, the 
territory and the state formed out of the public domain. 
The ordinance was but a few months old when South Carolina 
ceded (1787) her little strip of country west of the mountains 
(see map on p. 157) with the express condition that it should 
be slave soil. In 1789 North Carolina ceded what is now 
Tennessee on the same condition. Congress accepted both and 
out of them made the ^^ Territory southwest of the Ohio Kiver." 
In that slavery was allowed.^ 

1 The only remaining land -holding state, Georgia, ceded her claim in 
1802 (p. 240). 



UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 1G3 

169. Defects of the Articles of Confederation. — While Con- 
gress at N^ew Yurk was iraiiiing tlie Ordinance of 1787, a con- 
vention of delegates from the states was framing the Consti- 
tution at Philadelphia. A very little experience under the 
Articles of Confederation showed them to have serious defects. 

No Taxing Power. — In the first place, Congress could not 
lay a tax of any kind, and as it could not tax it could not 
get money with which to pay its expenses and the debt 
incurred during the Eevolution. Each of the states was in 
duty bound to pay its share. But this duty was so disre- 
garded that although Congress between 1782 and 1786 called 
on the states for $6,000,000, only $1,000,000 was paid. 

No Power to regulate Trade. — In the second place. Con- 
gress had no power to regulate trade with foreign nations, 
or between the states. This proved a most serious evil. The 
people of the United States at that time had few manufactures, 
because in colonial days Parliament would not allow them. All 
the china, glass, hardware, cutlery, woolen goods, linen, muslin, 
and a thousand other things were imported from Great Britain. 
Before the w^ar the Americans had paid for these goods with 
dried fish, lumber, whale oil, flour, tobacco, rice, and indigo, 
and with money made by trading in the West Indies. Now 
Great Britain forbade Americans to trade with her West 
Indies. Spain would not make a trade treaty with us, so we 
had no trade with her islands, and what was worse. Great 
Britain taxed everything that came to her from the United 
States unless it came in British ships. As a consequence, 
very little lumber, fish, rice, and other of our products went 
abroad to pay for the immense quantity of foreign-made goods 
that came to us. These goods therefore had to be paid for in 
money, which about 1785 began to be boxed up and shipped to 
London. When the people found that specie was being carried 
out of the country, they began to hoard it, so that by 1786 
none was in circulation. 

170. Paper Money issued. — This left the people without 
any money with which to pay wages, or buy food and clothing, 



164 THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 

and led at once to a demand that the states should print paper 
money and loan it to their citizens. Ehode Island, New York, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, and 
Georgia did so. But the money was no sooner issued than the 
merchants and others who had goods to sell refused to take it, 
whereupon in some of the states laws called " tender acts " 
were passed to compel people to use the paper. This merely 
put an end to business, for nobody would sell. In Massachu- 
setts, when the legislature refused to issue paper money, many 
of the persons who owed debts assembled, and, during 1786-87, 
under the lead of Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary soldier, pre- 
vented the courts from trying suits for the recovery of money 
owed or loaned.^ 

171. Congress proposes Amendments. — Of the many defects 
in the Articles, the Continental Congress was fully aware, and 
it had many a time asked the states to make amendments. 
One proposed that Congress should have power for twenty-five 
years to lay a tax of five per cent on all goods imported, and 
use the money to pay the Continental debts. Another was to 
require each, state to raise by special tax a sum sufficient to 
pay its yearly share of the current expenses of Congress. A 
third was to bestow on Congress for fifteen years the sole 
power to regulate trade and commerce. A fourth provided 
that in future the share each, state was to bear of the current 
expenses should be in proportion to its population. 

But the Articles of Confederation could not be amended 
unless all thirteen states consented, and, as all thirteen never 
did consent, none of these amendments were ever made. 

172. The States attempt to regulate Trade and fail — In the 
meantime the states attempted to regulate trade for themselves. 
New York laid double duties on English ships. Pennsylvania 
taxed a long list of foreign goods. Massachusetts, New Hamp- 
shire, and Ehode Island passed acts imposing heavy duties on 

1 Read McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. I., 
pp. 281-295, 304-329, 331-340 ; Fiske's Critical Period of American His- 
tory, pp. 168-186, 



MAKING THE CONSTITUTION 165 

articles unless they came in American vessels. But these laws 
were not uniform, and as many states took no action, very little 
good was accomplished.^ 

173. A Trade Convention called to meet at Annapolis, 1786.^ — 
Under these conditions, the business of the whole country 
was at a standstill, and as Congress had no power to do any- 
thing to relieve the distress, the state of Virginia sent out a 
circular letter to her sister states. She asked them to appoint 
delegates to meet and " take into consideration the trade and 
commerce of the United States." Four (New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware) responded, and their 
delegates, with those from Virginia, met at Annapolis in Sep- 
tember, 1786. 



CHAPTER XIII 

MAKING THE CONSTITUTION 



174. Call for the Constitutional Convention. — Finding that 
it could do nothing, because so few states were represented, 
and because the powers of the delegates were so limited, the 
convention recommended that all the states in the Union be 
asked by Congress to send delegates to a new convention, 
to meet at Philadelphia in May, 1787, "to take into consid- 
eration the situation of the United States," and "to devise 
such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to 
render the Constitution of the Federal government adequate to 
the exigencies of the Union." 

1 McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. I., 
pp. 246-259, 266-280 ; Fiske's Critical Period of American History, 
134-137, 145-147. 

■^ The report of this Annapolis convention is printed in Bulletin of 
Bureau of Bolls and Library of the Department of State, No. 1, Appendix, 
pp. 1-6. 



1G6 



THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 



175. The Philadelphia Convention.^ — Early in 1787 Congress 
approved tliis movement, and dnring the snmmer of 1787 (May 
to September) delegates from twelve states (Rhode Island sent 
none), sitting in secret session at Philadelphia, made the Con- 
stitution of the United States. 




Independence Chamber 



176. The Virginia and New Jersey Plans. — The story of that 
convention is too long and too complicated to be told in full.^ 
But some of its proceedings must be noticed. While the dele- 

1 All we know of the proceedings of this convention is derived from 
the journals of the convention, the notes taken down by James Madison, 
the notes of Yates of New York, and a speech by Luther Martin of Mary- 
land. They may be found in Elliot's Debates, Vol. IV. 

2 The room where the Constitution was framed. 

3 For short accounts, read " The Eramers and the Framing of the Con- 
stitution " in the Century Magazine, September, 1887, or "Framing the 
Constitution," in McMaster's With the Fathers, pp. 100-149, or Thorpe's 
Story of the Constitution, Chautauqua Course, 1891-92, pp. 111-148. 



MAKING THE CONSTITUTION 167 

gates were assembling, a few men, under the lead of Madison, 
met and drew up the outline of a constitution, which was pre- 
sented by the chairman of the Virginia delegation, and was 
"called the " Virginia plan." A little later, delegates from the 
small states met and drew up a second plan, which was the old 
Articles of Confederation with amendments. As the chairman 
of the New Jersey delegation offered this, it was called the "New 
Jersey plan." Both were discussed; but the convention voted 
to accept the Virginia plan as the basis of the Constitution. 

177. The Three Compromises. — This plan called, among 
other things, for a national legislature of two branches : a 
Senate and a House of Eepresentatives. The populous states 
insisted that the number of representatives sent by each 
state to Congress should be in proportion to her population. 
The small states insisted that each should send the same 
number of representatives. For a time neither party would 
yield; but at length the Connecticut delegates. suggested that 
the states be given an equal vote and an equal representation 
in the Senate, and an unequal representation, based on popu- 
lation, in the House. The contending parties agreed, and so 
made the first compromise. 

But the decision to have representation according to popula- 
tion at once raised the question, Shall slaves be counted as 
population ? This divided the convention into slave states and 
free (see p. 186), and led to a second compromise, by which 
it was agreed that three fifths of all slaves should be counted 
as population, for the purpose of apportioning representation. 

A third compromise sprang from the conflicting interests 
of the commercial and the planting states. The planting 
states wanted a provision forbidding Congress to pass navi- 
gation acts, except by a two-thirds vote, and forbidding any 
tax on exports ; three states also wished to import slaves for 
use on their plantations. The free commercial states wanted 
Congress to pass navigation laws, and also wanted the slave 
trade stopped, because of the three-fifths rule. The result 
was an agreement tliat the importation of slaves should not be 
McM. Hist. — 10 



168 THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 

forbidden by Congress before 1808, and that Congress might 
pass navigation acts, and that exports should never be taxed. 

178. The Election of President. — Another feature of the 
Virginia plan was the provision for a President whose business 
it should be to see that the acts of Congress were duly en- 
forced or executed. But when the question arose, How shall 
he be chosen? all manner of suggestions were made. Some 
said by the governors of the states; some, by the United 
States Senate ; some, by the state legislatures ; some, by a 
body of electors chosen for that purpose. When at last it 
was decided to have a body of electors, the difficulty was to 
determine the manner of electing the electors. On this no 
agreement could be reached; so the convention ordered that 
the legislature of each state should have as many electors 
of the President as it had senators and representatives in 
Congress, and that these men should be appointed in such 
way as the legislatures of the states saw fit to prescribe. 

179. Sources of the Constitution. — An examination of the 
Constitution shows that some of its features were new; that 
some were drawn from the experience of the states under the 
Confederation ; and that others were borrowed from the vari- 
ous state constitutions. Among those taken from state con- 
stitutions are such names as President, Senate, House of 
Representatives, and such provisions as that for a census, for 
the veto, for the retirement of one third of the Senate every two 
years, that money bills shall originate in the House, for im- 
peachment, and for what we call the annual message.^ 

The features based directly on experience under the Articles 
of Confederation are the provisions that the acts of Congress 
must be uniform throughout the Union; that the President 
may call out the militia to repel invasion, to put down insur- 
rection, and to maintain the laws of the Union ; that Congress 
shall have sole power to regulate foreign trade and trade between 
the states. No state can now coin money or print paper money, 

1 On the sources of the Constitution, read "The First Century of the 
Constitution" in New Princeton Beview, September, 1887, pp. 176-190. 



MAKING THE CONSTITUTION 169 

or make anything but gold or silver legal tender. Congress now 
has power to lay taxes, duties, and excises. The Constitution 
divides the powers of government between the legislative de- 
partment (Senate and House of Representatives) ; the executive 
department (the President, who sees that laws and treaties are 
obeyed) ; and the judicial department (Supreme Court and 
other United States courts, which interpret the Constitution, 
the acts of Congress, and the treaties). 

The new features are the definition of treason and the limitar 
tion of its punishment ; the guarantee to every state of a repub- 
lican form of government ; the swearing of state officials to sup- 
port the Federal Constitution; and the provision for amendment. 

Among other noteworthy features are the creation of a United 
States citizenship as distinct from a state citizenship, the limi- 
tation of the powers of the states ; and the provision that the 
Constitution, the acts of Congress, and the treaties are " the 
supreme law of the land." 

180. Constitution submitted to the People. — The convention 
ended its work, and such members as were willing signed the 
Constitution on September 17, 1787. Washington, as presi- 
dent of the convention, then sent the Constitution to the Con- 
tinental Congress sitting at New York and asked it to transmit 
copies to the states for ratification. This was done, and during 
the next few months the legislatures of most of the states 
called on the people to elect delegates to conventions which 
should accept or reject the Constitution, 

181. Ratification by the States. — In many of these con- 
ventions great objection was made because the new plan of 
federal government was so unlike the Articles of Confedera- 
tion, and certain changes were insisted on. The only states 
that accepted it just as it was framed were Delaware, Pennsyl- 
vania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, and Maryland. 
Massachusetts, South Carolina, New Hampshire, New York, 
and Virginia ratified with amendments. (For dates, see p. 176.) 

182. "The New Roof." — The Constitution provided that 
when nine states had ratified, it should go into effect '^ between 



170 THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 

the states so ratifying." While it was under discussion the 
Federalists, as the friends of the Constitution were named, 
had called it "the New Roof," which was going to cover 
the states and protect them from political storms. They 
now represented it as completed and supported by eleven 
pillars or states. Two states, Rhode Island and North 
Carolina, had not ratified, and so were not under the New 
Roof, and were not members of the new Union. Eleven states 
having approved, nothing remained but to fix the particular 
day on which the electors of President should be chosen, 
and the time and place for the meeting of the new Congress. 
This the Continental Congress did in September, 1788, by 
ordering that the electors should be chosen on the first Wednes- 
day in January, 1789, that they should meet and vote for 
President on the first Wednesday in February, and that the 
new Congress should meet at New York on the first Wednes- 
day in March, which happened to be the fourth day of the 
month. Later, Congress by law fixed March 4 as the day on 
which the terms of the Presidents begin and end.^ 

183. How Presidents were elected. — It must not be supposed 
that our first presidents were elected just as presidents are 
now. In our time electors are everywhere chosen by popular 
vote. In 1788 there was no uniformity. In Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, and Virginia the people had a complete, and in 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire a partial, choice. In Con- 
necticut, Delaware, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Georgia 
the electors were appointed by the legislatures. In New 
York the two branches of the legislature quarreled, and no 
electors were chosen. 

As the Constitution required that the electors should vote 

by ballot for two persons, such as had been appointed met at 

1 The question is often asked, When did the Constitution go into 
force? Article VII. says, "The ratification of the conventions of nine 
states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution be- 
tween the states so ratifying the same." New Hampshire, the ninth 
state, ratified June 21, 1788, and on that day, therefore, the constitution 
was "established" between the nine. 



MAKING THE CONSTITUTION 



171 



their state capitals on tlie first Wednesday in February, 1789, 
made lists of the persons voted for, and sent theni signed and 
certified under seal to the president of the Senate. But when 
March 4, 1789, came, there was no Senate. Less than a 
majority of tliat body had arrived in New York, so no busi- 
ness could be done. When at length the Senate secured a 
majority, the House was still without one, and remained so till 
April. Then, in the presence of the House and Senate, the 
votes on the lists were counted, and it was found that every 





7l ^ J 



^^^wu 



r^"^^^^!"^i^p^"'^'' 



jii 



#'|t|!!''Pf"I^^^^P'"'i!l"!l!Sll»i 



1 



Federal Hall, New York i 

elector had given one of his votes for George Washington, who 
was thus elected President. No separate ballot was then 
required for Vice President. Each elector merely wrote on his 
ballot the names of two men. He who received the greatest 
number of votes, if, in the words of the Constitution, " such 
number be a majority of the whole number of electors ap- 
pointed/' was elected President. He who received the next 
highest, even if less than a majority, was elected Vice Presi- 
dent. In 1789 this man was John Adams of Massachusetts. 



From an old print made in 1797. 




(f^/JZ/lt^^ 



MAKING THE CONSTITUTION 173 

184. The First Inauguration. — As soon as Washington re- 
ceived the news of his election, he left Mount Vernon and started 
for New York. His journey was one continuous triumphal 
march. The population of every town through which he passed 
turned out to meet him. Men, women, and children stood for 
hours by the roadside waiting for him to go by. At New York 
his reception was most imposing, and there, on April 30, 1789, 
standing on the balcony in front of Federal Hall (p. 171), he 
took the oath of office in the presence of Congress and a great 
multitude of people that filled the streets, and crowded the 
windows, and sat on the roofs of the neighboring houses.^ 

SUMMARY 

1. When independence was about decided on, Congress appointed a 

committee to draft a general plan of federal government. 

2. This plan, called Articles of Confederation, Maryland absolutely re- 

fused to ratify till the states claiming land west of the Alleghany 
Mountains ceded their claims to Congress. 

3. vNew York and Virginia having ceded their claims, Maryland ratified 

in March, 1781. 

4. These cessions were followed by others from Massachusetts and Con- 

necticut ; and from them all, Congress formed the public domain 
to be sold to pay the debt. 

5. The sale of this land led to the land ordinance of 1785 and the ordi- 

nance of 1787, for the government of the domain and the new 
political organism called the territory. 

6. The defects of the Articles made revision necessary, and produced 

such distress that two conventions were called to consider the state 
of the country. That at Annapolis attempted nothing. That at 
Philadelphia framed the Constitution of the United States. 

7. The Constitution was then passed to the Continental Congress, which 

sent it to the legislatures of the states to be by them referred to 
conventions elected by the people for acceptance or rejection. 

8. Eleven having ratified, Congress in 1788 fixed a day in 1789 (which 

happened to be March 4), when the First Congress under the 
Constitution was to assemble. 

9. The date of the first presidential election was also fixed, and George 

Washington was made our first President. 

1 Full accounts of the inauguration of Washington may be found in 
Harper''s Magazine, and also in the Century Magazine^ for April, 1889. 



174 



THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 



The Colonies adopt 
Constitutions and 
become States. 



Articles of Confed- 
■' eration. 



The Territories. 

The President. 
The Congress. 

The Judiciary. 
The Secretaries. 



1777. 

*- 1780. 



New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode 
Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North 
Carolina, South Carolina. 

New York, Georgia. 

Massachusetts. 



Constitution of the 
United States. 



Framed by Congress 1776-1777. 

Adopted by the states 1777-1781, 

In force March 1, 1781. 

Kind of government. 

Defects. Result of the defects. 

Trade convention at Annapolis. 

Constitutional convention called. 

Proceedings of the convention. 
The three compromises. 
Sources of the Constitution. 
Original features. 
Derived features. 
Ratification by the states. 
The Constitution in force. 

Land claims of seven states. 
Demands for the surrender of the west- 
ern territory. 
The cessions by the states. 
Ordinance of 1785. 
Ordinance of 1787. 
Territorial government created. 

J Manner of electing. 

[ Inauguration of Washington. 



J Organization of the First under the Constitu- 
1 tion. 



bS 



r The Supreme Court. 
-j The Circuit Court. 
I The District Courts. 

r Secretary of State. 
\ Secretary of Treasury. 
I Secretary of War. 

The Attorney-general. 

Origin of the " Cabinet. 



(See pp. 197, 198.) 



CHAPTER XIV 



OUR COUNTRY IN 1790 



185. The States. — What sort of a country, and wliat sort of 
people, was Washington thus chosen to rule over ? When he 
was elected, the Union was composed of eleven states, for 
neither Bhode Island nor North Carolina had accepted the 




175 



176 



THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 



Constitution.^ Vermont had never been a member of the 
Union, because the Continental Congress would not recognize 
her as a state. 

186. Only a Part inhabited. — Three fourths of our country 
was then uninhabited by white men, and almost all the people 
lived near the seaboard. Had a line been drawn along what was 
then the frontier, it would (as the map on p. 177 shows) have run 
along the shore of Maine, across New Hampshire and Vermont 
to Lake Champlain, then south to the Mohawk valley, then 
down the Hudson Eiver, and southwestward across Penn- 
sylvania to Pittsburg, then south along the Blue Eidge Moun- 
tains to the Altamaha Eiver in Georgia, and by it to the sea. 
How many people lived here was never known till 1790. The 
Constitution of the United States requires that the people 
shall be counted once in each ten years, in order that it may 
be determined how many representatives each state shall have 
in the House of Eepresentatives ; and for this purpose Con- 
gress ordered the first census to be taken in 1790. It then 
appeared that, excluding Indians, there were living in the 
eleven United States 3,380,000 human beings, or less than 
half the number of people who now live in the single state of 
New York. 

187. How the People were scattered. — More were in the South- 
ern than in the Eastern States. Virginia, then the most popu- 
lous, contained one fifth. Pennsylvania had a ninth, while in 
the five states of Maryland, Virginia, the two Carolinas, and 
Georgia were almost one half of the English-speaking people 
of the United States. These were the planting states, and, 
populous as they were, they had but two cities — Baltimore and 
Charleston. Savannah, Wilmington, Alexandria, Norfolk, and 

1 The states ratified the Constitution on the dates given below : 



1. Delaware . 






Dec. 7, 1787 


8. South Carolina . 


. May 23, 1788 


2. Pennsylvania 






Dec. 12, 1787 


9. New Hampshire . 


. June 21, 1788 


8. New Jersey 






Dec. 18, 1787 


10. Virginia. . . . 


. June 26, 1788 


4. Georgia . . 






Jan. 2, 1788 


11. New York . . . 


. July 26, 1788 


5. Connecticut 






Jan. 9, 1788 


12. North Carolina . 


. Nov. 21, 1789 


6. Massachusetts 






Feb. 7, 1788 


13. Rhode Island . . 


. May 29, 1790 


7. Maryland . 




. 


April 28, 1788 







178 THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 

Eichmond were small towns. Not one had 8000 people in it. 
Indeed, the inhabitants of the six largest cities of the country 
(Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Charleston, Baltimore, and 
Salem) taken together were but 131,000. 




Boston in 1790 1 

188. The Cities. — And how different these cities were from 
those of our day ! What a strange world Washington would 
find himself in if he could come back and walk along the 
streets of the great city which now stands on the banks of 
the Potomac and bears his name ! He never in his life saw a 
flagstone sidewalk, nor an asphalted street, nor a pane of glass 
six feet square. He never heard a factory whistle ; he never 
saw a building ten stories high, nor an elevator, nor a gas jet, 
nor an electric light; he never saw a hot-air furnace, nor 
entered a room warmed by steam. 

In the windows of shop after shop would be scores of 
articles familiar enough to us, but so unknown to him that he 
could not even name them. He never saw a sewing machine, 
nor a revolver, nor a rubber coat, nor a rubber shoe, nor a steel 
pen, nor a piece of blotting paper, nor an envelope, nor a post- 

1 From the Massachusetts Magazine^ November, 1790. 



OUE COUNTRY IN 1790 



179 



age stamp, nor a typewriter. He never struck a match, nor 
sent a telegram, nor spoke through a telephone, nor touched an 
electric bell. He never saw a railroad, though he had seen a 
rude form of steamboat. He never saw a horse car, nor an 
omnibus, nor a trolley car, nor a ferryboat. Fancy him board- 
ing a street car to take a ride. He would probably pay his 
fare with a " nickel." But the " nickel " is a coin he never 
saw. Fancy him trying to understand the advertisements 
that would meet his eye as he took his seat ! Fancy him star- 
ing from the window at a fence bright with theatrical posters, 
or at a man rushing by on a bicycle ! 




Philadelphia in 1800 (Arch Street) 

189. Newspapers and Magazines. — A boy enters the car 
with half a dozen daily newspapers all printed in the same 
city. In Washington's day there were but four daily papers 
in the United States ! On the news counter of a hotel, one 
sees twenty illustrated papers, and fifty monthly magazines. 



180 



THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 




A Franklin press 



In his day there was no illustrated paper, no scientific peri- 
odical, no trade journal, and no such illustrated magazines 

as Haiyer^s, Scribnefs, the Cen- 
tury, fSt. Nicholas. All the print- 
ing done in the country was done 
on presses worked by hand. To- 
day the Hoe octuple press can 
print 96,000 eight-page newspapers 

Be™™ ^-^^^ an hour. To print this number 

_iinr* I M.---*^«v^v on the hand press shown in the 

picture would have taken so long 
that when the last newspaper was 
printed the first would have been 
three months old ! 

190. The Fire Service.— The am- 
bulance, the steam fire engine, the 
hose cart, the hook and ladder 
company, the police patrol, the 

police officer on the street corner, the letter carrier gathering 

the mail, the district messenger boy, the ex- 
press company, the delivery wagon of the 

stores, have all come in since Washingtoit 

died. In his day the law required every 

householder in the city to be a fireman. His 

name might not appear on the rolls of any 

of the fire companies, he might not help 

to drag through the streets the lumbering 

tank which served as a fire engine, but he 

must have in his hall, or beneath the 

stairs, or hanging up behind his shop door, 

at least one leathern bucket inscribed with 

his name, and a huge bag of canvas or of 

duck. Then, if he were aroused at the 

dead of night by the cry of fire and the 

clanging of every church bell in the town, he seized his bucket 
1 Original in tlie Pennsylvania Historical Society. 




A fire bucket ^ 



OUR COUNTRY IN 1790 



181 



and his bag, and, while his wife put a lighted candle in the 
window to illuminate the street, set off for the fire. The 
smoke or the flame was his guide, for the custom of indicating 
the place by a number of strokes on a bell had not yet come 
in. When at last he arrived at the scene he found there no 
idle spectators. Every one was busy. Some hurried into the 
building and filled their sacks with such movable goods as 
came nearest to hand. Some joined the line that stretched 

to the water, and helped to pass the full buckets to 

who stood by the 



away 
those 
fire. 
in a 




Fire engine of 1800 ^ 



Others took posts 
second line, down 
which the empty buckets 
were hastened to the 
pump. The house would 
often be half consumed 
when the shouting made 
known that the engine 
had come. It was merely 
a pump mounted over a 
tank. Into the tank the 

water from the buckets was poured, and it was pumped thence 
by the efforts of a dozen men. 

191. The Post Office. — Washington sees a great wagon or a 
white trolley car marked United States Mail, and on inquiry is 
told that the money now spent by the government each year 
for the support of the post offices would have more than paid 
the national debt when he was President. He hears with amaze- 
ment that there are now 60,000 post offices, and recalls that in 
1790 there were but seventy-five. He picks up from the side- 
walk a piece of paper with a little pink something on the 
corner. He is told that the portrait on it is his own, that it 
is a postage stamp, that it costs two cents, and will carry a 
letter to San Erancisco, a city he never heard of, and, if the 
person to whom it is addressed cannot be found, will bring the 
1 From an old cut. 



182 THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 

letter back to the sender, a distance of over 5000 miles. In 
his day a letter was a single sheet of paper, no matter how 
large or small, and the postage on it was determined not by 
weight, bnt by distance, and might be anything from six to 
twenty-five cents. 

At that time postage must always be prepaid, and as the post 
office must support itself, letters were not sent from the country 
towns till enough postage had been deposited at the post office 
to pay the expense of sending them. Newspapers and books 
could not be sent by mail. 

192. The Franchise Taking the country through, the con- 
dition of the people was by no means so happy as ours. They 
had government of the people, but it was not by the people 
nor for the people. Everywhere the right to vote and to hold 
office was greatly restricted. The voter must have an estate 
worth a certain sum, or a specified number of acres, or an 
annual income of so many dollars. But the right to vote did 
not carry with it the right to hold office. More property was 
required for office holding than for voting, and there were 
besides certain religious restrictions. In New Hampshire, 
New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, the 
governor, the members of the legislature, and the chief officers 
of state must be Protestants. In Massachusetts and Maryland 
they must be Christians. All these restrictions were long since 
swept away. 

193. Cruel Punishments. — The humane spirit of our times 
was largely wanting. The debtor was cast into prison. The 
pauper might be sold to the highest bidder. The criminal was 
dragged out into open day and flogged or branded. From ten 
to nineteen crimes were punishable with death. No such thing 
as a lunatic asylum, or a deaf and dumb asylum, or a peniten- 
tiary existed. The prisons were dreadful places. Men came 
out of them worse than they went in. 

194. The Condition of the Laborer ; of the well to do. — Men 
worked harder and for less money then than now. A regular 
working day was from sunrise to sunset, with an hour for 



OUR COUNTRY IN 1790 



183 



breakfast and an hour for dinner. Sometimes the laborer 

was fed and lodged by the employer, in which case he was 

paid four dollars a 

month in winter and 

six in summer. Two 

shillings (30 cents) 

a day for unskilled 

labor was thought 

high wages. 

Even the houses 
of the well to do 
were much less com- 
fortable places than 
are such abodes in 
our day. There 
were no furnaces, no 
gas, no bathrooms, 
no plumbing. Wood 
was the universal 
fuel. Coal from Virginia and Rhode Island was little used. 




Washington's flute and Miss Custis's harpsichord at 
Mount Vernon 



All cooking , < was done in " Dutch ovens," or in 




out ovens," 



Earthenware stove — Moravian 




1 The bread, or meat, to be baked was put into the pot, and hot coals 
were heaped all around the sides and on the lid, which had a rim to keep 
the coals on it. 



184 



THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 



or in the enormous fireplaces to be 
found in every household. Wood 
fuel made sooty chimneys, and sooty 
chimneys took fire. In every city, 
therefore, were men known as 
" sweeps," whose business it was to 
clean chimneys. 

Washington was a farmer, yet he 
never in his life beheld a tomato, nor a cauliflower, nor an egg- 
plant, nor a horserake, nor a drill, nor a reaper and binder, nor 




A foot stove 




Kitchen in Washington's headquarters in Morristown 



a threshing machine, nor a barbed wire fence. His land was 

plowed with a wooden 

plow partly shod with 

iron. His seed was sown 

by hand ; his hay was cut 

with scythes ; his grain a plow used in 1775 

1 This shows a fine specimen of the old-fashioned fireplace. Notice the 
andirons, the bellows, the lamp, tlie spinning wheel, the old Dutch clock, 
and the kettles hanging on the crane over the logs. 




OUR COUNTRY IN 1790 185 

was reaped "with sickles, and threshed on the barn floor with 
flails in the hands of his slaves. 

195. Negro Slavery. — No living person under thirty years 
of age has ever seen a negro slave in our country. When 
Washington was President there were 700,000 slaves. When 
the Ke volution opened, slavery was permitted by law in every 
colony. But the feeling against it in the North had always 
been strong, and when the war ended, the people began the 
work of abolition. In Massachusetts and New Hampshire 
the constitutions of the states declared that " all men are born 
free and equal," and that "all men are born equally free," 
and this was understood to abolish slavery. In Pennsylvania, 
slavery was abolished in 1780. In Ehode Island and Con- 
necticut gradual abolition laws were passed which provided 
that all children born of slave parents after a certain day 
should be free at a certain age, and that their children should 
never be slaves. The Ordinance of 1787 had prohibited slavery 
in the Northwest Territory. But in 1790 New York, New 
Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and all the states south of these 
were slave states. (See map on the next page.) 

Though slaves were men and women and children, they had 
no civil rights whatever. They could be bought and sold, 
leased, seized for a debt, bequeathed by will, given away. If 
they made anything, or found anything, or earned anything, it 
belonged not to them, but to their owners. They were prop- 
erty just as oxen or horses were in the North. It was un- 
lawful to teach them to read or write. They were not allowed 
to give evidence against a white man, nor to travel in bands 
of more than seven unless a white man was with them, nor to 
quit the plantation without leave. 

If a planter provided coarse food, coarse clothes, and a 
rude shelter for his slaves, if he did not work them more 
than fifteen hours out of twenty-four in summer, nor more 
than fourteen in winter, and if he gave them every Sunday to 
themselves, he did quite as much for their comfort as the 
law required he should. 



186 



THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 




If the slave committed any offense, if he stole anything, 
or refused to work, or ran away, it was lawful to load him 
with irons, to confine him for any length of time in a cell, 
and to beat him and whip him till the blood ran in streams 
from the wounds, and he grew too weak to stand. Old 



OUR COUNTRY IN 1790 



187 



advertisements are still extant in which runaway blacks are 
described by the scars left upon their bodies by the lash. 
When such lashings were not prescribed by the court, they 
were commonly given under the eye of the overseer, or in- 
flicted by the owner himself. 

196. Six Days from Boston to New York. — Our country 
was small when Washington was President. The people 
lived on the seaboard. The 
towns and cities were not 
actually very far apart; 
but the means of travel 
were so poor, the time con- 
sumed in going even fifty 
miles was so great, that the 
country was practically im- 
mense in extent. Now we 
step into a beautifully 
fitted car, heated by steam, 
lighted by electricity, richly 
carpeted, and provided with 
most comfortable seats and 
beds, and are whirled 
across the continent from 
Philadelphia to San Pran- 

cisco in less time than it took Washington to go from New 
York to Boston. 

If you had lived in 1791 and started, say, from Boston, to 
go to Philadelphia to see the President and the great city 
where independence had been declared, you would very likely 
have begun by making your will, and bidding good-by to your 
friends. You would then have gone down to the office of 
the proprietor of the stagecoach, and secured a seat to New 
York. As the coach left but twice a week, you would have 

1 In many parts of the country where there was no water power, as 
Cape Cod, Long Island, Nantucket, etc., flour was ground at windmills 
The windmill shown in the picture was built in 1787, aud is still in use. 
McM. Hist. —11 







': \\7: 



Old mill at West Falmouth, Mass.i 



188 THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 

waited till the day came and would then have presented 
yourself, at three o'clock in the morning, at the tavern 
whence the coach started. 

The stagecoach was little better than a huge covered box 
mounted on springs. It had neither glass windows, nor door, 
nor steps, nor closed sides. The roof was upheld by ten 
posts which rose from the body of the vehicle, and the body 
was commonly breast high. From the top were hung cur- 
tains of leather, to be rolled up when the day was fine, and let 
down and buttoned when it was rainy and cold. Within were 
four seats. Without was the baggage. Fourteen pounds of 
luggage were allowed to be carried free by each passenger. But 
if your portmanteau or your brass-nail-studded hair trunk 
weighed more, you would have paid for it at the rate per mile 
that you paid for yourself. Under no circumstances, however, 
would you be permitted to take on the journey more than 150 
pounds. When the baggage had all been weighed and strapped 
on the coach, when the horses had been attached, and the way- 
bill, containing the names of the passengers, made out, the 
passengers would clamber to their seats through the front of the 
stage and sit down with their faces toward the driver's seat. 

One pair of horses usually dragged the coach eighteen miles, 
when a fresh pair would be attached, and if all went well, you 
would be put down about ten at night at some wayside inn 
or tavern after a journey of forty miles. Cramped and weary, 
you would eat a frugal supper and hurry off to bed with a 
notice from the landlord to be ready to start at three the next 
morning. Then, no matter if it rained or snowed, you would 
be forced to make ready by the dim light of a horn lantern, 
unknown now, for another ride of eighteen hours. 

If no mishaps occurred, if the coach was not upset by the 
ruts, if storm or flood did not delay you at Springfield, where 
the road met the Connecticut, or at Stratford, where it met the 
Housatonic, each of which had to be crossed on clumsy flat- 
boats, the stage would roll into New York at the end of the 
sixth day. 



OUR COUNTRY IN 1790 



189 



197. Two Days from New York to Philadelphia. — And here 
a serious delay was almost certain to occur, for even in the 
best of weather it was no easy matter to cross the Hudson to 
New Jersey. When the wind was high and the water rough, 
or the river full of ice, the boldest did not dare to risk a cross- 
ing. Once over the river, you would again go on by coach, 




stagecoach and inn i 

and at the end of two more days would reach Philadelphia. 
In our time one can travel in eight hours the entire distance 
between Boston and Philadelphia, a distance which Washing- 
ton could not have traversed in less than eight days. 

198. The Roads and the Inns. — The newspapers and the 

travelers of those days complained bitterly of the roads and 

the inns. On the best roads the ruts were deep, the descents 

jjrecipitous, and the passengers were often forced to get out 

1 From a print of 1798. 



190 . THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 

and help the driver pull the wheels out of the mud. Break- 
downs and upsets were of everyday occurrence. Yet bad as 
the roads were, the travel was so considerable that very often 
the inns and taverns even in the large cities could not lodge 
all who applied unless they slept live or six in a room. 

199. A Steamboat on the Delaware. — Rude as this means of 
travel seems to us, the men of 1790 were quite satisfied with 
it, and absolutely refused to make use of a better one. Had 
you been in Philadelphia during the summer of 1790 and taken 
up a copy of The Pennsylvania Packet, you could not have 
failed to notice this advertisement of the first successful 
steamboat in the world: 

I III " -* 

The Steam-Boat 

TS now ready to take Paflengcrs, and is intended to 
* fet off from Arch (Ircct Fsrry in Philadelphia eve- 
ry Monffav^ Wednefday and Friday, for Burlin^tan^ 
Br'tflol, Bordentownznil Trenton, to return on Tuffdays, 
Thur/days and Sa/arrfflyi— Price for Paflenger*, if6 to 
Barlington and Briilol» 3/9 to Bordencown, 5/*. to 
Trenton. June 14. tu.th f bf 

This boat was the invention of John Fitch, and from June 
to September ran up and down the Delaware; but so few 
people went on it that he could not pay expenses, and the 
boat was withdrawn. 

200. To the Great West. — From Philadelphia went out one 
of the great highways to what was then the far West, but to 
what we now know as the valley of the Ohio. The traveler 
who to-day makes the journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburg 
is whisked on a railroad car through an endless succession of 
cities and villages and rich farms, and by great factories and 
mills and iron works, which in the days of Washington had 
no existence. He makes the journey easily between sunrise 
and sunset. In 1790 he could not have made it in twelve days. 

201. Towns beyond the Alleghany Mountains. — Though the 
country between the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi 



OUK COUNTRY IN 1790 



191 



had been closed to settlement from 1763 to 1776 by the King's 
proclamation, it was by no means without population in 1790. 
At Detroit and Kaskaskia and Vincennes were old French 
settlements, made long before France was driven out of 
Louisiana. But there were others of later date. The hardy 
frontiersman of 1763 cared no more for the King's proclama- 
tion than he did for the bark of the wolf at his cabin door. 
The ink with which the document was written had not dried 
before emigrants from Maryland and Virginia and Pennsyl- 
vania were hurrying into the valley of the Monongahela. 

In 1769 William Bean crossed the mountains from North 
Carolina, and, building a cabin on the banks of Watauga 




Model of Fitch's steamboat i 



Creek, began the settlement of Tennessee. James Robertson 
and a host of others followed in 1770, and soon the valleys of 
the Clinch and the Holston were dotted with cabins. In 
1769 Daniel Boone, one of the grandest figures in frontier 
history, began his exploits in what is now Kentucky, and 
before 1777 Boonesboro, Harrodsburg, and Lexington were 
founded. 

202. State of Franklin. — Before the Revolution closed, emi- 
grants under James Robertson and John Donelson planted 
Nashville and half a dozen other settlements on the Cumber- 
land, in middle Tennessee. After the Revolution ended, so 
many settlers were in eastern Tennessee that they tried to 
1 Now in the National Museum, Washington. 



192 



THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 



make a new state. North Carolina, following the example of 
her Northern sisters, ceded to Congress her claim to what is 
now Tennessee in 1784. But the people on the Watauga no 
sooner heard of it than under the lead of John Sevier they 
organized the state of Franklin, whereupon North Carolina 
repealed the act of cession and absorbed the new state by 
making the Franklin ofiicials her officials for the district of 
Tennessee. In 1789 she again ceded the district, and in May 
of that year Tennessee became part of the public domain. 

203. Squatters in Ohio. — The cession to Congress of the 
land north of the Ohio led to an emigration from Virginia and 
Kentucky to what is now the state of Ohio. As this terri- 
tory was to be sold to pay the national debt, Congress was 
forced to order the squatters away, and when they refused to 
go, sent troops to burn their cabins, destroy their crops, and 
drive them across the Ohio. The lawful settlement of the 
territory began after the Ohio and Scioto companies bought 
their lands in 1787, and John C. Symmes purchased his in 1788. 

204. Pittsburg in 1790. — At Pittsburg, then the greatest 
town in the United States west of the Alleghany Mountains, 
were some 200 houses, mostly of logs, and 2000 people, a 
newspaper, and a few rude manufactories. The life of the 

town was its river trade. 
Pittsburg was the place 
where emigrants " fitted 
out" for the West. A 
settler intending to go 
down the Ohio valley with 
his family and his goods 
would lay in a stock of 
powder and ball, buy flour 
and ham enough to last 

him for a month, and secure two rude structures which passed 

under the name of boats. 

205. A Trip down the Ohio in 1790. — In the long keel boat 
he would put his wife, his children, and such travelers as had 




The first millstones and salt kettle in Ohio 



OUR COUNTRY TN 17P0 



193 




been waiting at Pittsbnrg for a cliance to go down the river. 
In the flatboat would be his cattle or his stores. Two dan- 
gers beset the voyager on the Ohio. His boat might become 
entangled in the branches of the trees that overhung the river, 
or be fired into by the Indians who lurked in the woods. The 
cabin of the keel boat, therefore, was low, that it might glide 
under the trees, and the roof and sides were made as nearly 
bullet-proof as possible. The whole craft was steered by a 
huge oar mounted on a pivot at the stern.^ 

206. Towns along the Ohio. — As the emigrant in such an 

ark floated down the river, he would come first to Wheeling, 

a town of fifty log cabins, and then to Marietta, a town 

planted in Ohio in 1788 by settlers sent by the Ohio Com- 

1 See the boats in the pictures on p. 194. 



194 



THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 




Cincinnati in 1802 (Fort Washington) 

pany. Below Marietta were Belpre and Gallipolis, a settlement 
made by Frenchmen brought there by the Scioto Company. Yet 
farther down, on the Kentucky side, were Limestone (now 
Maysville) and Newport, opposite which some settlers were 
founding the city of Cincinnati. Once past Cincinnati, all was 
unbroken wilderness till one reached Louisville in Kentucky, 
beyond which few emigrants had yet ventured to go. 

207. Cotton Planting. — The South, in 1790, was on the eve 
of a great industrial revolution. The products of the states 
south of Virginia had been tar, pitch, resin, lumber, rice, and 
indigo. But in the years following the peace the indigo plants 




Farmers' Castle (Belpre) in 1791 



OUR COUNTRY IN 1790 



195 



had been destroyed year after year by an insect. As the plant 
was not a native of our country, but was brought from the West 
Indies, it became necessary either to import more seed plants, 
or to raise some other staple. Many chose the latter course, 
and about 1787 began to grow cotton. 

208. Whitney and the Cotton Gin. — The experiment suc- 
ceeded, but a serious difficulty arose. The cotton plant has 
pods which when ripe split 
open and show a white 
woolly substance attached 
to seeds. Before the cotton 
could be used, these seeds 
must be picked out, and as 
the labor of cleaning was 
very great, only a small 
quantity could be sent to 
market. It happened, how- 
ever, that a young man 
from Massachusetts, named 
Eli Whitney, was then liv- 
ing in Georgia, and he, see- 
ing the need of a machine 
to clean cotton, invented 
the cotton gin.^ Till then, 
a negro slave could not 
clean two pounds of cotton 
in a day. With the gin the 
same slave in the same time could remove the seeds from a 
hundred pounds. This solved the difficulty, and gave to the 
United States another staple even greater in value than tobacco. 
In 1792 one hundred and ninety-two thousand pounds of cotton 
were exported to Europe; in 1795, after the gin was invented, 
six million pounds were sent out of the country. In 1908 
more than 6500 million pounds were raised and either consumed 
or exported. Of all the marvelous inventions of our country- 
1 The word " gin " is a contraction of " engine." 




The cotton gin 

Whitney's original gin. B, A later form. 



196 



THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 



men, this produced the very greatest consequences. It made 
cotton planting profitable ; it brought immense wealth to the 
people of the South every year ; it covered New England with 
cotton mills ; and by making slave labor profitable it did more 
than anything else to fasten slavery on the United States for 
seventy years, and finally to bring on the Civil War, the most 
terrible struggle of modern times. 

SUMMARY 



4. 



6. 



When Washington was inaugurated, the United States consisted of 
eleven states, with a population of about 3,380,000. 

These people lived not far from the Atlantic coast. Few cities 
existed ; not one had 60,000 inhabitants. Even the largest was 
without many conveniences which we consider necessaries. 

Travel was slow and difficult, and though a steamboat had been 
invented and used, it was too far ahead of the times to succeed. 

West of the Alleghany Mountains a few settlements had been made 
between 1763 and 1783. But it was after 1783, when streams of 
emigrants poured over the mountains, that settlement really began. 

In the South cotton was just beginning to be cultivated ; there all 
labor was done by slaves. In the North slavery was dying out, and 
in five of the states had been abolished. 



gq 



Number. 



The population. -{ Distribution. 

I Movement west. 



The cities. 



Communication 
between states. 



In the Ohio 



In the South. 



f Size. 

\ Absence of many conveniences known to us. 

y Newspapers and magazines. 

{Bad roads. Slow travel. 
The post offices. 
The stagecoaches. The inns. 
The early steamboat. 

C Population. Squatters. 
I Pittsburg in 1790. 
I A trip down the Ohio. 
[ Towns in the valley. 

{Slavery. 
Cotton planting. 
Whitney and the cotton gin. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE RISE OF PARTIES 

209. Organizing the New Government. — The President hav- 
ing been inaugurated, and the new government fairly estab- 
lislied, it became the duty of Congress to enact such laws as 
were needed immediately. The first act passed by Congress 
in 1789 was therefore a tariff act laying duties on goods, 
wares, and merchandise imported into the United States. 
Customhouses were then established and customs districts 
marked out, and ports of entry and ports of delivery desig- 
nated ; provision was made for the support of lighthouses 
and beacons ; the Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the 
territories was slightly changed and reenacted ; the depart- 
ments of State, War, and Treasury were established; and a 
call was made on the Secretary of the Treasury to report a plan, 
for payment of the old Continental debt. 

210. The United States Courts. — The Constitution declares 
that the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in 
one Supreme Court and such inferior courts as the Congress 
may from time to time ordain and establish. Acting under 
this power, Congress made provision for a Supreme Court, 
consisting of a Chief Justice and five Associate Justices, and 
marked out the United States into circuits and districts. 
The circuits were three in number. In the first were the 
Eastern States ; in the second, the Middle States ; and in the 
third, the Southern States. To each were assigned two Jus- 
tices of the Supreme Court, whose business it was to go to 
some city in each state in the circuit, and there, with the dis- 
trict judge of that state, hold a circuit court. The district 

197 



198 THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 

courts were thirteen in number, one being established in each 
state. ^ Washington appointed John Jay the first Chief Jus- 
tice of the Supreme Court. 

211. The Secretaries. — During the management of affairs by 
the Continental Congress three great executive departments 
had gradually grown up and been placed in charge of three 
men, called the "Superintendent of Finance," the "Secretary 
of the United States for the Department of Foreign Affairs," 
and the "Secretary of War." These the Constitution recog- 
nized in the expression "principal officer in each of the ex- 
ecutive departments." Congress by law now continued the 
departments and placed them in charge of a Secretary of the 
Treasury, a Secretary of State, and a Secretary of War. 
Washington filled the offices promptly, making Alexander 
Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury, Thomas Jefferson Secre- 
tary of State, and General Henry Knox Secretary of War. 

212. The "Cabinet." — It has long been the custom for the 
President to gather his secretaries about him on certain days 
in each week for the purpose of discussing public measures. 
To these gatherings has been given the name " Cabinet meet- 
ings," while the secretaries have come to be called "Cabinet 
officers." The Constitution, however, never intended to give 
the President a body of advisers. Indeed, a proposition to 
provide him with a council was voted down in the constitu- 
tional convention. But Washington at once began to consult 
the Chief Justice, the Vice President, his three secretaries, 
and the Attorney-general on matters of importance. At first 
he asked their opinions individually and in writing, but toward 
the end of his first term he convened a general meeting of the 
heads of departments, and by so doing set a custom out of 
which, in time, the "Cabinet" has grown. 

213. The Origin of the National Debt. — As soon as Hamilton 
was made Secretary of the Treasury, it became his duty, in 
accordance with an order from Congress, to prepare a plan for 
the payment of the debts contracted by the Continental Con- 

1 For later changes, see Andrews's Manual of the Constitution^ p. 202. 



THE RISE OF PARTIES 



199 



gress. When that body was unexpectedly called on, in May, 
1775, to conduct the war, it liad nothing with which to pay 
expenses, and was forced to use all sorts of means to raise 
money. 

214. Paper Money. — The first resort was the issue, dur- 
ing 1775 and 1776, of six batches of Continental "bills of 
credit," amounting in all to ^36,000,000. These "bills" 
were rudely engraved bits of paper, stating on their face that 

" This bill entitles the bearer to receive Spanish milled 

dollars, or the value thereof in 
gold or silver." They were is- 
sued in sums of various denomi- 




Continental money 



nations, from one sixth of a dollar up, and were to be redeemed 
by the states. The amount assigned each state for redemp- 
tion was in proportion to the supposed number of its inhab- 
itants. 

215. Loan-office Certificates. — In 1776 Congress tried another 
means. It opened a loan office in each state and called on 
patriotic people to come forward and loan it money, receiving 
in return pieces of paper called "loan-office certificates." 
Interest was to be paid on these ; but after a while Congress, 
having no money with which to pay interest, was forced to 
resort to another form of paper, called " interest indents." 



200 THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 

216. The Congress Lottery. — The loan office having failed 
to bring in as much money as Avas needed, Congress, toward 
the close of 1776, was driven to seek some other way, and 
resorted to a lottery. A certain number of tickets were sold, 
after which a drawing took place, and all who drew prizes 
were given certificates payable at the end of five years. 

217. More Bills of Credit. — But the sale of tickets went off 
so slowly that Congress had to go back to the issue of bills 
of credit. In 1777, therefore, the printing press was again 
put to work, and issues were made in rapid succession, till 
more than $200,000,000 in Continental paper were in circula- 
tion. 

218. The *' New Tenor." — Then the Continental bills ceased 
to circulate, and in March, 1780, Congress called in the old 
money and offered to exchange it for a new issue, giving one 
dollar of the new paper money, or "new tenor," for forty 
dollars of the old. But the attempt to restore credit by such 
means was a failure, and by the end of the year 1781 all paper 
money ceased to circulate. 

219. Certificates. — Long before this time officials had been 
forced to pay debts contracted in the name of Congress with 
other kinds of paper, called certificates, and known as treas- 
ury, commissary, quartermaster, marine, and hospital certifi- 
cates, according to the department issuing them. To these 
must be added the "final settlements," or certificates given to 
the soldiers at the end of the war in payment of their services. 

220. Foreign Debt. — Besides the debt thus contracted at 
home. Congress had borrowed a great sum in Europe. 

221. The National Debt in 1790. — Thus the debt contracted 
by the Continental Congress consisted of two parts. 1. The 
foreign debt, due to France, Holland, and Spain, and amount- 
ing, Hamilton found, to $11,700,000. 2. The domestic or 
home debt, of $42,000,000. But the states had also fallen 
into debt because of their exertions in the war. Just how 
great the state debts were could not be determined, but they 
were estimated to be $21,500,000. 



THE RISE OF PARTIES 201 

222. Assumption and Funding. — For the redemption of this 
debt Hamilton prepared two measures, — the funding, or, as 
we should say, the bonding, of the foreign and Continental 
debt, and the assuming and funding of the state debts. This 
was done, and Congress ordered stock bearing interest to be 
issued in exchange for the old debts, and so established our 
national debt, which in 1790 amounted to $75,000,000. 

223. The National Capital. — Funding the state debts was 
strongly opposed by many congressmen, and was not carried 
till a bargain was made by which it was agreed that if enough 
members from Virginia and Pennsylvania would support the 
measure to secure its passage through the House of Eepre- 
sentatives, the national government should be removed from 
New York to Philadelphia for ten years, and after that to a 
city to be built on the Potomac. This was faithfully carried 
out, and in the summer of 1790 the government offices were 
removed to Philadelphia, where they remained till the summer 
of 1800, when they were removed to Washington in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. 

224. The Bank of the United States. — The troublesome ques- 
tions of funding and assum23tion thus disposed of. Congress 
called on Hamilton for a report on the further support of 
public credit, and when it met in the session of 1790-91, re- 
ceived a plan for a great National Bank, with a capital of 
$10,000,000. The United States was to raise $2,000,000 ; the 
rest was to be subscribed for by the people. The bank was to 
keep the public revenues, was to aid the government in mak- 
ing payments all over the country. To do this, power was 
given to the parent bank (which must be at Philadelphia) to 
establish branches in the chief cities and towns, and to issue 
bank bills which should be received all over the United States 
for public lands, taxes, duties, postage, and in payment of 
any debt due the government. Great opposition was made ; 
but the charter was granted for twenty years, and in 1791 the 
Bank of the United States began business. 

The effect of these two measures, funding the debt and 



202 



THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 




The first Bank of the United States 



establishing a bank, was immediate. Confidence and credit 
were restored. Money that the peoplfe had long been hiding 

away was brought out 
and invested in all 
sorts of new enter- 
prises, such as banks, 
canal companies, man- 
ufacturing companies, 
and turnpike com- 
panies. 

225. "Federalists" 
and *' Republicans.** 
— When the Consti- 
tution was before the 
people for acceptance 
or rejection in 1788, they were divided into two bodies. Those 
who wanted a strong and vigorous federal government, who 
wanted Congress to have plenty of power to regulate trade, 
pay the debts of the country, and raise revenue, supported the 
Constitution just as it was and were called "Federalists." 

Others, who wanted the old Articles of Confederation pre- 
served and amended so as to give Congress a revenue and only 
a little more power, opposed the Constitution and wanted it 
altered. To please these "Anti-Federalists," as they were a 
large part of the people, Congress, in 1789, drew up twelve 
amendments to the Constitution and sent them to the states. 
With the ratification of ten of these amendments, opposition 
to the Constitution ceased. But as soon as Congress began to 
pass laws, difference of opinion as to the expediency of them, 
and even as to the right of Congress to pass them, divided the 
people again into two parties, and sent a good many Federalists 
into the Anti-Federalist party. 

A very large number of men, for instance, opposed the fund- 
ing of the Continental Congress debt at its face value, because 
the people never had taken a bill at the value expressed on its 
face, but at a very much less value ; some opposed the assump- 



THE RISE OF PARTIES 203 

tion of the state debts, because Congress, they said, had power 
to pay the debt of the United States, but not state debts; 
others opposed the National Bank because the Constitution 
did not give Congress express power in so many words to 
charter a bank. Others complained that the interest on the 
national debt and the great salary of the President ($25,000 a 
year) and the pay of Congressmen (f 6 a day) and the hundreds 
of tax collectors made taxes too heavy. They complained 
again that men in office showed an undemocratic fondness 
for aristocratic customs. The President, they said, was too 
exclusive, and owned too fine a coach. The Justices of the 
Supreme Court must have black silk gowns, with red, white, 
and blue scarfs. The Senate for some years to come held 
its daily session in secret ; not even a newspaper reporter was 
allowed to be present. 

As early as 1792 there were thus a very great number of 
men in all parts of the country who were much opposed to the 
measures of Congress and the President, and who accused the 
Federalists of wishing to set up a monarchy. A great national 
debt, they said, a funding system, a national bank, and heavy 
internal taxes are all monarchical institutions, and if you have 
the institutions, it will not be long before you have the mon- 
archy. They began therefore in 1792 to organize for election 
purposes, and as they were opposed to a monarchy, they called 
themselves "Republicans."^ Their great leaders were Jeffer- 
son, Madison, Monroe, John Randolph, and Albert Gallatin. 

226. The Whisky Rebellion, 17940 — One of the taxes to 
which the Republicans objected, that on whisky, led to the 
first rebellion against the government of the United States. In 
those days, 1791, the farmers living in the region around Pitts- 
burg could not send grain or flour down the Ohio and the 
Mississippi, because Spain had shut the Mississippi to naviga- 
tion by Americans. They could not send their flour over the 
mountains to Philadelphia or Baltimore, because it cost more 
to haul it there than it would sell for. Instead, therefore, of 

1 This party was the forerunner of the present Democratic party. 
McM. Hist. — 12 



204 THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT 

making flour, they grew rye and made whisky on their own 
farms. This found a ready sale. Now, when the United States 
collectors attempted to collect the whisky tax, the farmers of 
western Pennsylvania drove them away. An appeal was then 
made to the courts ; but when the marshal came to make 
arrests he, too, was driven away. Under the Articles of Con- 
federation this would have been submitted to. But the Con- 
stitution and the acts of Congress were now " the supreme law 
of the land," and Washington in his oath of office had sworn 
to see them executed. To accomplish this, he used the power 
given him by an act of Congress, and called out 12,900 militia 
from the neighboring states and marched them to Pittsburg. 
Then the people yielded. Two of the leaders were tried and 
convicted of treason ; but Washington pardoned them. 

The insurrection or rebellion was a small affair. But the 
principles at stake were great. It was now shown that the 
Constitution and the laws must be obeyed ; that it was treason 
to resist them by force, and that if necessary the people would, 
at the call of the President, turn out and put down rebellion 
by force of arms.-^ 

SUMMARY 

1. As soon as Washington was inaugurated, Congress proceeded to 

organize the new government. 

2. The Supreme Court and circuit and district courts were estabhshed. 

3. The departments of State, War, and Treasury were formed. 

4. Twelve amendments to the Constitution were proposed. 

5. Three financial measures were adopted : 

A. A tariff act was passed, 

B. The debts of the states were assumed, and, with that of the 
Continental Congress, funded. 

C. A national bank was chartered. 

6. The price of funding was the ultimate location of the national capital 

on the Potomac. 

7. The first census was taken in 1790. 

8. The result of the financial measures of Congress was the rise of the 

Republican party (the forerunner of the present Democratic party). 

1 Read McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. II., 
pp. 189-204 ; Findley's History of the Insurrection in Pennsylvania. 



THE RISE OF PARTIES 



205 



The Origin of Political Parties. 



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THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDE- 
PENDENCE 

CHAPTER XVI 

THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY 

227. Trouble with Great Britain and France. — From the con- 
gressional election in 1792 we may date the beginning of 
organized political parties in the United States. They sprang 
from differences of opinion as to domestic matters. But on a 
sudden in 1793 Federalists and Republicans became divided on 
questions of foreign affairs. 

Ever since 1789 France had been in a state of revolution, 
and at last (in 1792) the people established the French Re- 
public, cut off the heads of the King and Queen (in 1793), and 
declared war on England and sent a minister. Genet, to the 
United States. At that time we had no treaty with Great 
Britain except the treaty of peace. With France, however, we 
had two treaties, — one of alliance, and one of amity and com- 
merce. The treaty of alliance bound us to guarantee to France 
" the possessions of the crown of France in America," by which 
were meant the French West Indian Islands. When Washing- 
ton heard that war had been declared by France, and that 
a French minister was on his way to America, he became 
alarmed lest this minister should call on him to make good the 
guarantee by sending a fleet to the Indies. On consulting his 
secretaries, they advised him that the guarantee applied only 
when France was attacked, and not when she was the attacking 
party. The President thereupon issued a proclamation of 

206 



THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY 207 

neutrality ; that is, declared that the United States would not 
side with either party in the war, but would treat both alike. 

228. Sympathy for France ; the French Craze. — Then be- 
gan a long struggle for neutrality. The Republicans were very 
angry at Washington and denounced him violently. France, 
they said, had been our old friend ; Great Britain had been our 
old enemy. We had a treaty with France ; we had none with 
Great Britain. To treat her on the same footing with France 
was therefore a piece of base ingratitude to France. A wave 
of sympathy for France swept over the country. The French 
dress, customs, manners, came into use. Republicans ceased 
to address each other as Mr. Smith, Mr. Jones, Sir, or 
*^Your Honor," and used Citizen Smith and Citizen Jones. 
The French tricolor with the red liberty cap was hung up 
in taverns and coffeehouses, which were the clubhouses of 
that day. Every French victory was made the occasion of 
a "civic feast," while the anniversaries of the fall of the 
Bastile and of the founding of the Republic were kept in every 
great city.^ 

229. England seizes our Ships; the Rule of 1756. — To pre- 
serve neutrality in the face of such a public sentiment was 
hard enough ; but Great Britain made it more difficult yet. 
When war was declared, France opened the ports of her West 
Indian Islands and invited neutral nations to trade with them. 
This she did because she knew that the British navy could 
drive her merchantmen from the sea, and that all trade 
between herself and her colonies must be carried on in the 
ships of neutral nations. 

Now the merchants of the United States had never been 
allowed to trade with the French Indies to an unlimited ex- 
tent. The moment, therefore, they were allowed to do so, they 
gladly began to trade, and during the summer of 1793 hundreds 
of ships went to the islands. There were at that time four 
questions of dispute between us and Great Britain : 

1 Read McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. 
II., pp. 89-96; Harper^s Magazine, April, 1897. 



208 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 

1. Great Britain held that she might seize any kind of food 

going to a French port in our ships. We held that only 
military stores might be so seized. 

2. Great Britain held that when a port had been declared to 

be blockaded, a ship bound to that port might be seized 
even on the high seas. We held that no port was block- 
aded unless there was a fleet actually stationed at it to 
prevent ships from entering or leaving it. 

3. Great Britain held that our ships might be captured if they 

had French goods on board. We held that '' free ships 
made free goods," and that our ships were not subject to 
capture, no matter whose goods they had on board. 

4. Great Britain in 1756 had adopted a rule that no neutral 

should have in time of war a trade she did not have in 
time of peace. 

The United States was now enjoying a trade in time of war 
she did not have in time of peace, and Great Britain began to 
enforce her rule. British ships were ordered to stop American 
vessels going to or coming from the French West Indies, and 
if they contained provisions, to seize them. This was done, 
and in the autumn of 1793 great numbers of American ships 
were captured. 

230. Our Sailors impressed. — All this was bad enough and 
excited the people against our old enemy, who made matters a 
thousand times worse by a course of action to which we could 
not possibly submit. She claimed the right to stop any of our 
ships on the sea, send an officer on board, force the captain to 
muster the crew on the deck, and then search for British sub- 
jects. If one was found, he was seized and carried away. If 
none were found, and the British ships wanted men, native- 
born Americans were taken off under the pretext that one 
could not tell an American from an English sailor. Our 
fathers could stand a great deal, but this was too much, and 
a cry for war went up from all parts of the country. 

But Washington did not want war, and took two measures 



THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY 209 

to prevent it. He persuaded Congress to lay an embargo for 
thirty days, that is, forbid all ships to leave our ports, and 
induced the Senate to let him send John Jay, the Chief Justice, 
to London to make a treaty of amity and commerce with 
Great Britain. 

231. Jay's Treaty, 1794. — In this mission Jay succeeded; 
and though the treaty was far from what Washington wanted, 
it was the best that could be had, and he approved it.^ At this 
the Republicans grew furious. They burned copies of the 
treaty at mass meetings and hung Jay in effi.gj. Yet the 
treaty had some good features. By it the King agreed to 
withdraw his troops from Oswego and Detroit and Mackinaw, 
which really belonged to us but were still occupied by the 
English. By it our merchants were allowed for the first time 
to trade with the British West Indies, and some compensation 
was made for the damage done by the capture of ships in the 
West Indies. 

232. Treaty with Spain About the same time (October, 

1795) we made our first treaty with Spain, and induced her 
to accept the thirty-first degree of latitude as the south bound- 
ary of our country, and to consent to open the Mississippi to 
trade. As Spain owned both banks at the mouth of the river, 
she claimed that American ships had no right to go in or out 
without her consent, and so prevented the people of Kentucky 
and Tennessee from trading in foreign markets. She now 
agreed that they might float their produce to New Orleans and 
pay a small duty, and then ship it wherever they pleased. 

233. The Election of Adams and Jefferson, 1796. — Washing- 
ton had been reelected President in 1792, but he was now tired 
of office, and in September, 1796, issued his "Farewell Address," 
in which he declined to be the candidate for a third presiden- 
tial term. In those days there were no national conventions to 
nominate candidates, yet it was well understood that John 
Adams, the Vice President, Avas the candidate of the Federal- 
ists, and Thomas Jefferson, of the Republicans. When the 

1 The Senate ratified this treaty in the summer of 1795. 




210 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 

votes were counted in Congress, it was found that Adams had 
71 electoral votes, and Jefferson 68 ; so they became Presi- 
dent and Vice President. 

234. Trouble with France. — Adams was inaugurated on 

March 4, 1797, and three days later heard that C. C. Pinck- 

ney, our minister to the French Republic, had been driven 

from France. Pinckney had been sent to 

France by Washington in 1796, but the 

French Directory (as the five men who then 

governed France were called) had taken 

great offense at Jay's treaty: first because 

it was favorable to Great Britain, and in the 

second place because it put an end for the 

present to all hope of war between her and 

the United States. The Directory, therefore, 

refused to receive Pinckney until the French 

grievances were redressed. 

The President was very angry at the insult, and summoned 
Congress to meet and take such action as, said he, " shall con- 
vince France and the whole world that we are not a degraded 
people humiliated under a colonial spirit of fear and sense of 
inferiority." But the Republicans declared so vigorously that 
if a special mission were sent to France all would be made 
right, that Adams yielded, and sent John Marshall and 
Elbridge Gerry to join Pinckney as envoys extraordinary. On 
reaching Paris, three men acting as agents for the Directory 
met them, and declared that before they could be received as 
ministers they must do three things : 

1. Apologize for Adams's denunciation of the conduct of France. 

2. Pay each Director $50,000. 

3. Pay tribute to France. 

When the President reported this demand to Congress, the 
names of the three French agents were suppressed, and instead 
they were called Mr. X, Mr. Y, Mr. Z. This gave the mission 
the nickname " X, Y, Z mission." 



THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY 211 

235. "Millions for Defense, not a Cent for Tribute." —As the 

newspapers published these dispatches, a roar of indignation, 
in which the Federalists and Republicans alike joined, went 
up from the whole country. " Millions for defense, not a cent 
for tribute," became the watchword of the hour. Opposition 
in Congress ceased, and preparations were at once made for 
war. The French treaties were suspended. The Navy De- 
partment was created, and a Secretary of the Navy appointed. 
Frigates were ordered to be built, money was voted for arms, 
a provisional army was formed, and Washington was again 
made commander in chief, with the rank of lieutenant general. 
The young men associated for defense, the people in the sea- 
ports built frigates or sloops of war, and gave their services 
to erect forts and earthworks. Every French flag was now 
pulled down from the coffeehouses, and the black cockade 
of our own Revolutionary days was once more worn as 
the badge of patriotism. Then was written, by Joseph Hop- 
kinson of Philadelphia,^ and sung for the first time, our 
national song Hail, Columbia ! 

236. The Alien and Sedition Acts. — Carried away by the 
excitement of the hour, the Federalists now passed two most 
unwise laws. Many of the active leaders and very many of 
the members of the Republican party were men born abroad 
and naturalized in this country. Generally they were Irish- 
men or Frenchmen, and as such had good reason to hate Eng- 
land, and therefore hated the Federalists, who they believed 
were too friendly to her. To prevent such becoming voters, 
and so taking an active part in politics, the Fedei:alists passed 
a new naturalization law, which forbade any foreigner to become 
an American citizen until he had lived fourteen years in our 
country. Lest this should not be enough to keep them quiet, 

1 The music to which we sing Hail, Columbia ! was called The 
President's March, and was played for the first time when the people 
of Trenton were welcoming Washington on his way to be inaugurated 
President in 1789. For an account of the trouble with France read 
Mc Master's History of the People of the United States, Vol. II., pp. 
207-416, 427-476. 



212 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 

a second law was passed by which the President had power for 
two years to send any alien (any of these men who for fourteen 
years could not become citizens) out of the country whenever 
he thought it proper. This law Adams never used. 

For five years past the Republican newspapers had been 
abusing Washington, Adams, the acts of Congress, the mem- 
bers of Congress, and the whole foreign policy of the Federal- 
ists. The Federalist newspapers, of course, had retaliated 
and had been just as abusive of the Republicans. But as the 
Federalists now had the power, they determined to punish the 
Republicans for their abuse, and passed the Sedition Act. This 
provided that any man who acted seditiously (that is, inter- 
fered with the execution of a law of Congress) or spoke or 
wrote seditiously (that is, abused the President, or Congress, 
or any member of the Federal government) should be tried, 
and if found guilty, be fined and imprisoned. This law was 
used, and used vigorously, and Republican editors all over the 
country were fined and sometimes imprisoned.^ 

237. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. — The passage of 
these Alien and Sedition laws greatly excited the Republicans, 
and led Jefferson to use his influence to have them condemned 
by the states. For this purpose he wrote a set of resolutions 
and sent them to a friend in Kentucky who was to try to have 
the legislature adopt them.^ Jefferson next asked Madison to 
write a like set of resolutions for the Virginia legislature to 
adopt. Madison became so interested that he gave up his seat 
in Congress and entered the Virginia legislature, and in Decem- 
ber, 1798, induced it to adopt what have since been known as 
the Virginia Resolutions of 1798. 

Meantime the legislature of Kentucky, November, 1798, had 
adopted the resolutions of Jefferson.^ 

1 The AUen and Sedition acts are in Preston's Documents, pp. 277-282. 

2 Kentucky had been admitted to the Union in 1792 (see p. 243). 

8 E. D, Warfield's Virginia and Kentucky Besolutions. The Resolu- 
tions are printed in Preston's Documents^ pp. 283-298 ; Jefferson's Works, 
Vol. IX., p. 494. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY 213 

Both sets declare 1. That the Constitution of the United 
States is a compact or contract. 2. That to this contract each 
state is a party ; that is, the united states are equal partners 
in a great political firm. So far they agree ; but at this point 
they differ. The Kentucky Resolutions assert that when any 
question arises as to the right of Congress to pass any law, each 
state may decide this question for itself and apply any remedy 
it likes. The Virginia Resolutions declare that the states may 
judge and apply the remedy. 

Both declared that the Alien and Sedition laws were wholly 
unconstitutional. Seven states answered by declaring that 
the laws were constitutional, whereupon Kentucky in 1799 
framed another set of resolutions in which she said that when 
a state thought a law to be illegal she had the right to nullify 
it ; that is, forbid her citizens to obey it. This doctrine of 
nullification, as we shall see, afterwards became of very serious 
importance.^ 

238. The Naval War with France. — Meantime war opened 
with France. The Navy Department was created in April, 
1798, and before the year ended, a gallant little navy of thirty- 
four frigates, corvettes, and gun sloops of war had been col- 
lected and sent with a host of privateers to scour the sea 
around the French West Indies, destroy French commerce, 
and capture French ships of war.^ One of our frigates, the 
Constellation, Captain Thomas Truxtun in command, captured 
the French frigate Insurgente, after a gallant fight. On another 
occasion, Truxtun, in the Constellation, fought the Vengeance, 
and would have taken her, but the Frenchman, finding he was 
getting much the worst of it, spread his sails and fled. Yet 
another of our frigates, the Boston, took the Berceau, whose flag 
is now in the Naval Institute Building at Annapolis. In six 
months the little American twelve-gun schooner Enterprise took 

1 The answers of the states are printed in Elliot's Debates, Vol. IV., 
pp. 532-539. 

2 For an account of this war, read Maclay's History of the United 
States Navy, Vol. I., pp. 165-213. 



214 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 

eight French privateers, and recaptured and set free four Ameri- 
can merchantmen. These and a hundred other actions just as 
gallant made good the patriotic words of John Adams, " that 
we are not a degraded people humiliated under a colonial 
spirit of fear and sense of inferiority." So impressed was 
France with this fact that the war had scarcely begun when 
the Directory meekly sent word that if another set of ministers 
came they would be received. They ought to have been told 
that they must send a mission to us. But Adams in this re- 
spect was weak, and in 1800, the Chief Justice, Oliver Ells- 
worth, William R. Davie, and William Vans Murray were sent 
to Paris. The Directory had then fallen from power, Napoleon 
was ruling France as First Consul, and with him in September, 
1800, a convention was concluded. 

239. The Stamp Tax ; the Direct Tax and Fries's Rebellion, 1798. 
— The heavy cost of the preparations for war made new taxes 
necessary. Two of these, a stamp tax very similar to the 
famous one of 1765, and a direct tax, greatly excited the 
people. The direct tax was the first of its kind in our history, 
and was laid on lands, houses, and negro slaves. In certain coun- 
ties of eastern Pennsylvania, where the population was chiefly 
German, the purpose of the tax was not understood, and the 
people refused to make returns of the value of their farms 
and houses. When the assessors came to measure the houses 
and count the windows as a means of determining the value 
of the property, the people drove them off. For this some of 
the leaders were arrested. But the people under John Fries 
rose and rescued the prisoners. At this stage President 
Adams called out the militia, and marched it against the rebels. 
They yielded. But Fries was tried for treason, was sentenced 
to be hanged, and was then pardoned. Thus a second time 
was it proved that the people of the United States were deter- 
mined to support the Constitution and the laws and put down 
rebellion. 

240. Washington the National Capital. — In accordance with 
the bargain made in 1790, Washington selected a site for the 



THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY 



215 



Federal city on both banks of the Potomac. This great square 
tract of land was ten miles long on each side, and was given to 
the government partly by Maryland and partly by Virginia.^ 
It was called the District of Columbia, and in it were marked 
out the streets of Washington city. 

Though all possible haste was made, the President's house 
was still unfinished, the Capitol but partly built, and the 
streets nothing but roads cut through the woods, when, in the 
summer of 1800, the secretaries, the clerks, the books and 
papers of the government left Philadelphia for Washington. 
With the opening of the new century, and the occupation of 



\ ■^-, r 




The National Capitol as it was in 1825 

the new Capitol, came a new President, and a new party in 
control of the government. 

241. The Election of Thomas Jefferson. — The year 1800 
was a presidential year, and though no formal nomination 
was made, a caucus of Kepublican leaders selected as can- 
didates Thomas Jefferson for President, and Aaron Burr for 
Vice President. A caucus or meeting of Federalist leaders 
selected John Adams and C. C. Pinckney as their candidates. 
When the returns were all in, it appeared that Jefferson 
had received seventy-three votes. Burr seventy-three votes, 
Adams sixty-five votes, Pinckney sixty-four votes. The Con- 
stitution provided that the man who received the highest 

1 In 1846 so much of the District as had belonged to Virginia was 
given back to her. 



216 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 

number of electoral votes, if the choice of the majority of the 
electors, should be President. But as Jefferson and Burr had 
each seventy-three, neither had the highest, and neither was 
President. The duty of electing a President then devolved on 
the House of Representatives, which after a long and bitter 
struggle elected Jefferson President ; Burr then became Vice 
President. To prevent such a contest ever arising again, the 
twelfth amendment was added to the Constitution. This pro- 
vides for a separate ballot for Vice President. March 4, 1801, 
Jefferson, escorted by the militia of Georgetown and Alexan- 
dria, walked from his lodgings to the Senate chamber and took 
the oath of office.^ He and his party had been placed in 
power in order to make certain reforms, and this, when Con- 
gress met in the winter of 1801, they began to do. 

242. The Annual Message. — While Washington and Adams 
were presidents, it was their custom when Congress met each 
year to go in state to the House of Eepresentatives, and in the 
presence of the House and Senate read a speech. The two 
branches of Congress would then separate and appoint com- 
mittees to answer the President's speech, and when the 
answers were ready, each would march through the streets 
to the President's house, where the Vice President or the 
Speaker would read the answer to the President. When Con- 
gress met in 1801, Jefferson dropped this custom and sent 
a written message to both houses — a practice which every 
President since that time has followed. 

243. Republican Reforms. — True to their promises, the E,e- 
publicans now proceeded to repeal the hated laws of the 
Federalists. They sold all the ships of the navy except 
thirteen, they ordered prosecutions under the Sedition law to 
be stopped, they repealed all the internal taxes laid by the 

1 For a fine description of Jefferson's personality, read Henry Adams's 
History of the United States, Vol. I., pp. 185-19L As to the story of 
Jefferson riding alone to the Capitol and tying his horse to the fence, 
see Adams's History, Vol. I., pp. 196-199; McMaster's History, Vol. II., 
pp. 533-534. 



218 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 

Federalists, they cut down the army to 2500 men, and reduced 
the expenses of government to $3,700,000 per year — a sum 
which would not now pay the cost of running the government 
for three days. As the annual revenue collected at the custom- 
houses, the post office, and from the sale of land was $10,800,000, 
the treasury had some $7,000,000 of surplus each year. This 
was used to pay the national debt, which fell from $83,000,000 
in 1801 to $45,000,000 in 1812, and this in spite of the pur- 
chase of Louisiana. 

244. The Purchase of Louisiana. — When France was driven 
out of America, it will be remembered, she gave to Spain all of 
Louisiana west of the Mississippi Eiver, together with a large 
tract on the east bank, at the river's mouth. Spain then 
owned Louisiana till 1800, when by a secret treaty she gave 
the province back to France.^ 

For a while this treaty was really kept secret ; but in April, 
1802, news that Louisiana had been given to France and that 
Napoleon was going to send out troops to hold it, reached this 
country and produced two consequences. In the first place, 
it led the Spanish intendant (as the man who had charge of 
all commercial matters was called) to withdraw the " right of 
deposit " at New Orleans, and so prevent citizens of the United 
States sending their produce out of the Mississippi Eiver. 
In the second place, this act of the intendant excited the rage 
of all the settlers in the valley from Pittsburg to Natchez, 
and made them demand the instant seizure of New Orleans 
by American troops. To prevent this, Jefferson obtained the 
consent of Congress to make an effort to buy New Orleans and 
West Florida, and sent Monroe to aid our minister in France 
in making the purchase. 

When the offer was made, Napoleon was about going to war 
with England, and, wanting money very much, he in turn offered 
to sell the whole province to the United States — an offer that 
was gladly accepted. The price paid was $15,000,000, and in 
December, 1803, Louisiana was formally delivered to us. 
1 Adams's History of the United States^ Vol. I., pp. 352-376. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY 219 

245. Louisiana. — Concerning this splendid domain hardly 
anything was known. No boundaries were given to it either on 
the north, or on the west, or on the south. What the country 
was like nobody could tell.^ Where the source of the Missis- 
sippi was no white man knew. In the time of La Salle a 
priest named Hennepin had gone up to the spot where Minne- 
apolis now stands, and had seen the Falls of St. Anthony 
(p. 63). But the country above the falls was still unknown. 

246. Explorations of Lewis and Clark. — That this great 
region ought to be explored had been a favorite idea of Jef- 
ferson for twenty years past, and he had tried to persuade 
learned men and learned societies to organize an expedition to 
cross the continent. Failing in this, he turned to Congress, 
which in 1803 (before the purchase of Louisiana) voted a sum 
of money for sending an exploring party from the mouth of 
the Missouri to the Pacific. The party was in charge of Meri- 
wether Lewis and William Clark. Early in May, 1804, they 
left St. Louis, then a frontier town of log cabins, and worked 
their way up the Missouri Eiver to a spot not far from the 
present city of Bismarck, North Dakota, where they passed 
the winter with the Indians. Kesuming their journey in the 
spring of 1805, they followed the Missouri to its source in the 
mountains, after crossing which they came to the Clear Water 
Kiver ; and down this they went to the Columbia, which carried 
them to a spot where, late in November, 1805, they " saw the 
waves like small mountains rolling out in the sea." They 
were on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. After spending the 
winter at the mouth of the Columbia, the party made its way 
back to St. Louis in 1806. 

247. The Oregon Country. — Lewis and Clark were not the 
first of our countrymen to see the Columbia Eiver. In 1792 a 

1 In a description of it which Jefferson sent to Congress in 1804, he 
actually stated that "there exists about one thousand miles up the Mis- 
souri, and not far fronl that river, a salt mountain. This mountain is 
said to be one hundred and eighty miles long and forty-five in width, 
composed of solid rock salt, without any trees or even shrubs on it." 
McM. Hist. — 13 



220 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 



Boston ship captain named Gray was trading with the Pacific 
coast Indians. He was collecting furs to take to China and 
exchange for tea to be carried to Boston, and while so engaged 
he discovered the mouth of a great river, which he entered, 

and nam-ed the Co- 



Chinnook Indians 




Month of Columbia lUver 



lumbia in honor of 
his ship. By right 
of this discovery by 
Gray the United 
States was entitled 
to all the country 
drained by the Co- 
lumbia River. By 
the exploration of 
this country .by 
Lewis and Clark 
our title was made 
stronger still, and it 
was finally perfected 
a few years later when the trappers and settlers went over 
the Rocky Mountains and occupied the Oregon country.^ 

248. Pike explores the Southwest. — While Lewis and Clark 
were making their way up the Missouri, Zebulon Pike was 
sent to find the source of the Mississippi, which he thought 
he did in the winter of 1805-06. In this he was mistaken, but 
supposing his work done, he was dispatched on another expe- 
dition in 1806. Traveling up the Missouri River to the 
Osage, and up the Osage nearly to its source, he struck across 
Kansas to the Arkansas River, which he followed to its head 
waters, wandering in the neighborhood of that fine mountain 
which in honor of him bears the name of Pikes Peak. Then 
he crossed the mountains and began a search for the Red 
River. The march was a terrible one. It was winter; the 
cold was intense. The snow lay waist deep on the plains. 
Often the little band was without food for two days at a time. 
^ Barrows's Oregon ; McMaster's History, Vol. XL, pp. 633-635. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY 



221 



But Pike pushed on, in spite of hunger, cold, and suffering, and 
at last saw, through a gap in the mountains, the waters of the 
Rio Grande. Believing that it was the Red, he hurried to 
its banks, only to be seized by the Spaniards (for he was on 
Spanish soil), who carried him a prisoner to Santa Fe, from 
which city he and his men wandered back to the United States 
by way of Mexico and Texas. 




249. Astoria founded. — The immediate effect of these ex- 
plorations was greatly to stimulate the fur trade. One great 
fur trader, John Jacob Astor of New York, now founded the 
Pacific Fur Company and made preparations to establish a line 
of posts from the upper Missouri to the Columbia, and along 
it to the Pacific, and supply them from St. Louis by way of the 
Missouri, or from the mouth of the Columbia, where in 1811 a 
little trading post was begun and named Astoria. This com- 
pleted our claim to the Oregon country. Gray had discovered 
the river ; Lewis and Clark had explored the territory drained 
by the river ; the Pacific Fur Company planted the first lasting 
settlement. 



222 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 



SUMMARY 

1. In 1793 France made war on Great Britain. The United States was 

bound by the treaty of alliance of 1778 to " guarantee " the French 
possessions in America. 

2. This treaty, and the coming of the French minister, forced Washing- 

ton to declare the United States neutral in the war. 

3. His proclamation of neutrality was resented by the Republicans, who 

now became sympathizers with France. The Federalists, who 
were strongest in the commercial states, became the anti-French 
or English party. 

4. When France declared war on England, she opened her ports in the 

West Indies to the merchant trade of the United States. 

5. England held that we should not have a trade with France when at 

war, for we had not had it when France was at peace. This was 
an application of the "Rule of 1756." In 1793-1794, therefore, 
England began to seize our ships coming from the French ports. 

6. This so excited the Republicans that they attempted to force the 

country into war with England. 

7. To prevent war, Washington sent Jay to London, where he made our 

first commercial treaty with Great Britain. 

8. This offended the French Directory, who refused to receive our new 

minister and sent him out of France. 

9. War with France now seemed likely. But Adams, in the interest of 

peace, sent three commissioners to Paris to make a new treaty. 
They were met with demands for tribute and came home. 

10. The greatest excitement now prevailed in the country. The Navy 

Department was created, a navy was built by the people, and a 
provisional army raised. The old French treaties were suspended, 
and a naval war began. 

11. The popular anger against the Republicans (the French party) gave 

the Federalists control of Congress, whereupon they passed the 
Alien and Sedition laws. 

12. Against these Virginia and Kentucky protested in a set of resolutions. 

13. In the election of 1800 the Federalists were defeated, and the Repub- 

licans secured control of the Federal government. 

14. In 1800 Spain ceded Louisiana to France, whereupon the Spanish 

official at New Orleans shut the Mississippi to American commerce. 

15. The whole West cried out against this and demanded war. But 

Jefferson offered to buy West Florida from France. Napoleon 
thereupon offered to sell all Louisiana, and we bought it (1803). 

16. The new territory as yet had no boundaries ; but it was explored in 

the northwest by Lewis and Clark, and in the southwest by Pike. 

17. The discovery of the Columbia River in 1792, the exploration of the 

country by Lewis and Clark, and the founding of Astoria estab- 
lished our claim to the Oregon country. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY 



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CHAPTER XVII 

STRUGGLE FOR "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS" 

250. France and Great Britain renew the War. — The war 

between France and Great Britain, which had been the cause 
of the sale of Louisiana to us, began in May, 1803. The 
United States became again a neutral power, but, as in 1793, 
was soon once more involved in the disputes of France. 

Towards the end of the previous war, Great Britain had so 
changed her ideas of neutrality that the merchants of the 
United States, according to her rules, 

1. Could trade directly between a port of the United States 

and the ports of the French West Indies. 

2. Could trade directly between the United States and ports 

in France or Europe. 

3. But could not trade directly between a French West India 

island and France, or a Spanish West India island and 
Spain, or a Dutch colony and Holland. 

To evade this last restriction, by combining the voyages 
allowed in numbers 1 and 2, was easy. A merchant had but 
to load his ship at New York or Philadelphia, go to some port 
in the French West Indies, take on a new cargo and bring it 
to Savannah, enter it at the customhouse and pay the import 
duties. This voyage was covered by number 1. He could 
then, without disturbing his cargo in the least, clear his vessel 
for France, and get back from the collector of customs all the 
duty he had paid except three per cent. He was now export- 
ing goods from the United States and was protected by num- 
ber 2. This was called "the broken voyage," and by using it 

224 



"FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS" 225 

thousands of shipowners were enabled to carry goods back and 
forth between France and her colonies, by merely stopping 
a few hours at an American port to clear for Europe. So uni- 
versal was this practice that in 1804 the customs revenue rose 
from ^16,000,000 to $20,000,000. 

In May, 1805, however, the British High Court of 
Admiralty decided that goods which started from the French 
colonies in American ships and were on their way to France^ 
could be captured even if they had been landed and reshipped 
in the United States. The moment that decision was made, 
the old trouble began again. British frigates were stationed 
off the ports of New York and Hampton Eoads, and vessels 
coming in and going out were stopped, searched, and their 
sailors impressed. Before 1805 ended, 116 of our ships had 
been seized and 1000 of our sailors impressed. 

251. Orders in Council, i8o6. — In 1806 matters grew 
worse. Napoleon was master of Europe, and in order to 
injure Great Britain he cut off her trade with the continent. 
For this she retaliated by issuing, in May, 1806, an Order 
in Council, which declared the whole coast of Europe, from 
Brest to the mouth of the river Elbe, to be blockaded. This 
was a mere " paper blockade " ; that is, no fleets were off the 
coast to keep neutrals from running into the blockaded ports. 
Yet American vessels were captured at sea because they were 
going to those ports. 

252. The Berlin Decree. — Napoleon waited to retaliate till 
November, 1806, when he issued the Berlin Decree,^ declaring 
the British Islands to be blockaded. 

253. Orders in Council, 1807. — Great Britain felt that every 
time Napoleon struck at her she must strike back at him, and 
in January, 1807, a new Order in Council forbade neutrals 
to trade from one European port to another, if both were 
in the possession of France or her allies. Finding it had no 
effect, she followed it up with another Order in Council in 
November, 1807, which declared that every port on the face 

1 So called because he was at Berlin when he issued it. 



226 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 

of the earth from which for any reason British ships were 
excluded was shut to neutrals, unless they first stopped at 
some British port and obtained a license to trade. 

254. The Milan Decree, 1807. — It was now Napoleon's turn 
to strike, which he did in December, 1807, by issuing the Milan 
Decree.^ Thenceforth any ship that submitted to be searched 
by British cruisers or took out a British license, or entered 
any port from which French ships were excluded, was to be 
captured wherever found. 

As a result of this series of French Decrees and British 
Orders in Council,^ the English took 194 of our ships, and the 
French almost as many. 

255. Jefferson's Policy; Non-importation Act. — The policy by 
which Jefferson proposed to meet this emergency consisted of 
three parts : 

1. Lay up the frigates and defend our coast and harbors by 

a number of small, swift-sailing craft, each carrying one 
gun in the stern. In time of peace they were to be 
hauled up under sheds. In time of war they were to 
be shoved into the water and manned by volunteers. 
Between 1806 and 1812, 176 of these gunboats were 
built. 

2. Make a new treaty with Great Britain, because that made 

by Jay in 1794 was to expire in 1806. Under the in- 
structions of Jefferson, therefore, Monroe and Pinckney 
signed a new treaty in December, 1806. But it said 
nothing about the impressment of our sailors, or about 
the right of our ships to go where they pleased, and 
was so bad in general that Jefferson would not even 
send it to the Senate.^ 

1 So called because he was in Milan at the time, and dated it. from that 
city. 

2 On the Orders in Council and French Decrees, read Adams's History 
of the United States, Vol. III., Chap. 16 ; Vol. IV., Chaps. 4, 5, and 6; 
McMaster' s ^is^or?/, Vol. IIL, pp. 219-223; 249-250; 272-274. 

3 No treaty can become a law unless approved by the President and 
two thirds of the Senate. 



"FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS" 227 

3. The third part of his policy consisted in doing what we 
should call "boycotting." He wanted a law which 
would forbid the importation into the United States of 
any article made, grown, or produced in Great Britain 
or any of her colonies. Congress accordingly, in April, 
1806, passed what was called a " Non-importation Act, " 
which prohibited not the importation of every sort of 
British goods, wares, and merchandise, but only a few 
which the people could make in this country; as paper, 
cards, leather goods, etc. This was to go into force at 
the President's pleasure. 

256. The Chesapeake and the Leopard — Such an attempt to 
punish Great Britain by cutting off a part of her trade was 
useless, and only made her more insolent than before. In- 
deed, just a week after the President signed the non-importa- 
tion bill, as one of our coasting vessels was entering the harbor 
of New York, a British vessel, wishing to stop and search her, 
fired a shot which struck the helmsman and killed him at the 
wheel. 

About a year later, June, 1807, an attack more outrageous 
still was made on our frigate Chesapeake. She was on her 
way from Washington to the Mediterranean, and was still in 
sight of land when a British vessel, the Leopard, hailed and 
stopped her and sent an officer on board with a demand for 
the delivery of deserters from the English navy. The captain 
of the Chesapeake refused, the officer returned, and the Leop- 
ard opened fire. To return the fire was impossible, for only 
a few of the guns of the Chesapeake were mounted. At last 
one was discharged, and as by that time three men had been 
killed and eighteen wounded. Commander Barron of the Chesa- 
peake surrendered. Four men then were taken from her deck. 
Three were Americans. One was an Englishman, and he was 
hanged for desertion.^ 

1 Maclay's History of the Navij, Vol. L, pp. 305-308 ; McMaster*s 
History, Vol. III., pp. 255-259. 



228 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 

257. The Long Embargo. — The attack on the Chesapeake 
ought to have been followed by war. But Jefferson merely 
demanded reparation from Great Britain, and when Congress 
met in December, 1807, asked for an embargo. The request 
was granted, and merchant vessels in all the ports of the 
United States were forbidden to sail for a foreign country till 
the President saw fit to suspend the law. The restriction was 
so sweeping and the damage done to American farmers, mer- 
chants, and shipowners so great, that the people began to evade 
it at once. They would send their vessels to New Orleans 
and stop at the West Indies on the way. They would send 
their flour, pork, rice, and lumber to St. Marys in Georgia and 
smuggle it over the river to Florida, or take it to the islands 
near Eastport in Maine and then smuggle it into New Bruns- 
wick. Because of this, more stringent embargo laws were 
passed, and finally, in 1809, a "Force Act," to compel obedi- 
ence. But smuggling went on so openly that there was noth- 
ing to do but use troops or lift the embargo. In February, 
1809, accordingly, the embargo laws, after fourteen months' 
duration, were repealed. Instead of them the Eepublicans 
enacted a Non-intercourse law which allowed the people to 
trade with all nations except England and France.^ 

258. Jefferson refuses a Third Term. — During 1806, the states 
of New Jersey, Vermont,^ Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode 
Island, Maryland, Georgia, and North Carolina invited Jef- 
ferson to be President a third time. For a while he made no 
reply, but in December, 1807, he declined, and gave this 
reason : " That I should lay down my charge at a proper period 
is as much a duty as to have borne it faithfully. If some ter- 
mination to the services of the Chief Magistrate be not fixed by 
the Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally 
four years, will in fact become for life; and history shows how 
easily that degenerates into an inheritance." This wise answer 

1 McMaster's History, Vol. III., pp. 279-338 ; Adams's History, Vol. 
IV., Chaps. 7, 11, 13, 15. 

2 Vermont was admitted into the Union in 1791 (p. 243), 




"FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS" 229 

was heartily approved by the people all over the country, and 
with Washington's similar action established a custom which 
has been generally followed ever since. 

As Jefferson would not accept a third term, a caucus of 
Republican members of Congress met one evening at the 
Capitol in Washington and nominated James 
Madison and George Clinton. The Federal- 
ists held no caucus, but agreed among them- 
selves to support C. C. Pinckney and Rufus 
King. Madison and Clinton were easily 
elected, and were sworn into office March 4, 
1809. ^^^ii' im Y 

259. The Macon Bill ; Non-intercourse. — 
When Congress met in 1809 one more effort 
was made to force France and England to ^^""^^ ^^^'^°'' 
respect our rights on the sea. Non-importation had failed. 
The embargo had failed. Non-intercourse had failed, and 
now in desperation they passed a law which at the time was 
called the "Macon Bill," from the member of Congress who 
introduced it. This restored trade with France and England, 
but declared that if either would withdraw its Decrees or 
Orders, the United States would stop all trade with the other. 

260. Trickery of Napoleon. — And now Napoleon came for- 
ward and assured the American minister that the Berlin and 
Milan Decrees should be recalled on November 1, 1810, pro- 
vided the United States would restore non-intercourse with 
England. To this Madison agreed, and on November 1, 1810, 
issued a proclamation saying that unless Great Britain should, 
before February 1, 1811, recall her Orders in Council, trade 
with her should stop on that day. Great Britain did not re- 
call her Orders, and in February, 1811, we once more ceased 
to trade with her. 

Trade with France was resumed on November 1, 1810, and 
of course a great fleet of merchants went off to French ports. 
But they were no sooner there than the villainy of Napoleon 
was revealed, for on December 25, by general order, every 



230 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 

American ship in the French ports was seized, and $10,000,000 
worth of American property was confiscated. He had not 
recalled his Decrees, but pretended to do so in order to get 
the American goods and provisions which he sorely needed. 

It is surprising how patient the Americans of those days 
were. But their patience as to Great Britain now gave out, 
and our minister at London was recalled in 1811. This 
alarmed the British, who promptly began to take steps to 
keep the peace, and offered to make amends for the Leopard- 
Chesapeake outrage which had occurred four years before 
(June, 1807). They agreed to replace the three American 
sailors on the deck of the Chesapeake, and did so (June, 
1812). But the day for peaceful settlement was gone. The 
people were aroused and angry, and this feeling showed 
itself in many ways. 

261. The President and the Little Belt. — In the early part of 
May, 1811, a British frigate was cruising off the harbor of New 
York with her name Guerri^re painted in large letters on her 
fore-topsail, and one day her captain stopped an American 
vessel as it was about to enter New York, and impressed a 
citizen of the United States. Three years earlier this outrage 
would have been made the subject of a proclamation. Now, 
the moment it was known at Washington, an order was sent to 
Captain Rogers of the frigate President to go to sea at once, 
search for the Guerridre, and demand the delivery of the man., 
Rogers was only too glad to go, and soon came in sight of a 
vessel which looked like the Guerri^re; but it was half-past 
eight o'clock at night before he came within speaking dis- 
tance. A battle followed and lasted till the stranger became 
unmanageable, when the President stopped firing ; and the next 
morning Rogers found that his enemy was the British twenty- 
two-gun ship. Little Belt. 

262. The War Congress. — Another way in which the anger 
of the people showed itself was in the election, in the autumn 
of 1810, of a Congress which met in December, 1811, fully 
determined to make war on Great Britain. In that Congress 



"FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS" 231 

were two men who from that day on for forty years were great 
political leaders. One was John C. Calhoun of South Caro- 
lina ; the other was Henry Clay of Kentucky. 

Clay was made Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
and under his lead preparations were instantly begun for war, 
which was finally declared June 18, 1812. There was no 
Atlantic cable in those days. Had there been, it is very 
doubtful if war would have been declared; for on June 23, 
1812, five days after Congress authorized Madison to issue the 
proclamation, the Orders in Council were recalled. 

The causes of war, as set forth in the proclamation, were 

1. Tampering with the Indians, and urging them to attack 

our citizens on the frontier. 

2. Interfering with our trade by the Orders in Council. 

3. Putting cruisers off our ports to stop and search our vessels. 

4. Impressing our sailors, of whom more than 6000 were in 

the British service. 

SUMMARY 

1. One reason which led Napoleon to sell Louisiana was his determination 

to go to war with England, This he did in 1803. 

2. Renewal of war in Europe made the United States again a neutral 

nation, and brought up the old quarrel over neutral rights. 

3. In 1806, Napoleon, who was master of nearly all western Europe, 

cut off British trade with the continent. Great Britain in return 
declared, by an Order in Council, the coast from Brest to the Elbe 
blockaded ; that is, shut to neutral trade. 

4. Later in the year 1806 Napoleon retaliated with the Berlin Decree, 

declaring the British Islands blockaded. 

5. Great Britain, by another Order in Council (1807), shut all European 

ports, under French control, to neutrals. 

6. Napoleon struck back with the Milan Decree. 

7. Our commerce was now attacked by both powers, and to force them 

to repeal their Decrees and Orders in Council, certain commercial 
restrictions were adopted by the United States. 

A. Non-importation, 1806. 

B. Embargo, 1807-1809. 

C. Non-intercourse, 1809. 

8. Each of them failed to have any effect, and in 1812 war was declared. 



232 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 




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CHAPTER XVIII 

THE WAR FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 

263. Fighting on the Frontier. — "Mr. Madison's War," as 
the Federalists delighted to call our war for commercial 
independence, opened with three armies in the field ready to 
invade and capture Canada. One under Hull, then governor 
of the territory of Michigan, was to cross the river at Detroit, 
and march eastward through Canada. A second, under General 
Van Rensselaer, was to cross the Niagara River, take Queens- 
town, and join Hull, after which the two armies were to capture 
York, now Toronto, and go on eastward toward Montreal. 
Meantime, the third army, under Dearborn, was to go down 
Lake Cham plain, and meet the troops under Hull and Van 
Rensselaer before Montreal. The three were then to capture 
Montreal and Quebec, and complete the conquest of Canada. 

The plan failed; for Hull was driven from Canada, and 
surrendered his army and the whole Northwest, at Detroit; 
Van Rensselaer, defeated at Queenstown, was unable even to 
get a footing in Canada; while Dearborn, after reaching the 
northern boundary line of New York, stopped, and the year 
1812 ended with nothing accomplished. 

The surrender of Hull filled the people with indignation, 
aroused their patriotism, and forced the government to gather 
a new army for the recapture of Detroit. The command was 
given to William Henry Harrison, who hurried from Cincin- 
nati across the wilderness of Ohio, and in the dead of winter 
reached the shores of Lake Erie. General Winchester, who 
commanded part of the troops, was now called on to drive the 
British from Frenchtown, a little hamlet on the river Raisin, 

233 



234 STRUGGLE FOR COMxMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 




and (in January, 1813) tried to 
do so. But the British and In- 
dians came down on him in great 
numbers, and defeated and cap- 
tured his army, after which the 
Indians were allowed to massacre 
and scalp the wounded. 

And now the British became aggressive, invaded Ohio, and 
attacked the Americans under Harrison at Fort Meigs, and 
then at Fort Stephenson, where Major Croghan and 160 men, 
with the aid of one small cannon, defeated and drove off 320 
Canadians and Indians. 

264. Battle of Lake Erie. — Again the Americans in turn 
became aggressive. Since the early winter, a young naval officer 
named Oliver Hazard Perry had been hard at work, with a 
gang of ship carpenters, at Erie, in Pennsylvania, cutting down 
trees, and had used this green timber to build nine small 
vessels. With this fleet he sailed, in September, in search of 
the British squadron, which had been just as hastily built, and 



WAR FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 235 

soon found it near Sandusky, Ohio. His own ship he had 
named the Lawrence, in honor of a gallant American captain 
who had been killed a few months before in a battle with an 
English frigate. As Perry saw the enemy in the distance, he 
flung to the breeze a blue flag on which was inscribed, " Don't 
give up the ship " (the dying order of Lawrence to his men), 
sailed down to meet the enemy, and fought the two largest 
British ships till the Lawrence was a wreck. Then, with his 
flag on his arm, he jumped into a boat, and amidst a shower 
of shot and bullets was rowed to the Niagara. Once on her 
deck, he again hastened to the attack, broke the British line of 
battle, and captured the entire fleet. His dispatch to Harrison 
is as famous as his victory: "We have met the enemy, and 
they are ours — two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one 
sloop." 

265. Battle of the Thames. — Perry's victory was a grand 
one. It gave him command of Lake Erie, and enabled him to 
carry Harrison's soldiers over to Canada, where, on the Thames 
Kiver, Harrison defeated the British and Indians. These two 
victories regained all that had been lost by the surrender of 
Hull. 

Along the New York border little was done during 1813. 
The Americans made a raid into Canada, and to their shame 
burned York. The British attacked Sacketts Harbor and were 
driven off. The Americans sent an expedition down the St. 
Lawrence against Montreal, but the leaders got frightened and 
took refuge in northern New York. 

266. Campaign of 1814. — In 1814 better officers were put 
in command, and before winter came the Americans, under 
Jacob Brown and Winfield Scott, had won the battles of Chip- 
pewa and Lundys Lane, and captured Fort Erie. But the 
British returned in force, burned Black Kock and Buffalo in 
revenge for the burning of York, and forced the Americans 
to leave Canada. 

The fighting along the Niagara Biver, by holding the army 
in that place, prevented the Americans from attacking Mon- 
McM. Hist. — 14 



236 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 

treal, and enabled the British to gather a fleet on Lake Cham- 
plain, and send an army down from Quebec to invade New- 
York state just as Burgoyne had in 1777. But the land force 
was defeated by General Macomb at Plattsburg, while Thomas 
McDonough utterly destroyed the fleet in Plattsburg Bay. 
This was one of the great victories of the war. 

267. The Sea Fights. — While our army on the frontier was 
accomplishing little, our war ships were winning victory after 
victory on the sea. At the opening of the war, our navy was 
the subject of English ridicule and contempt. We had sixteen 
ships ; she had 1200. She laughed at ours as '^ fir-built things 
with a bit of striped bunting at their mastheads.'^ But before 
1813 came, these "fir-built things" had destroyed her naval 
supremacy.^ With the details of all these victories on the 
sea we will not concern ourselves. Yet a few must be men- 
tioned because the fame of them still endures, and because 
they are examples of naval warfare in the days when the 
ships fought lashed together, and when the boarders, cutlass 
and pistol in hand, climbed over the bulwarks and met 
the enemy on his own deck, man to man. During 1812 the 
frigate Constitution, whose many victories won her the name 
of " Old Ironsides," sank the Guern^re ; the United States 
captured and brought to port the Macedonian ; and the Wasp, 
a little sloop of eighteen guns, after the most desperate engage- 
ment of the whole war, captured the British sloop Frolic. 

When these sloops were some two hundred feet apart, the 
Wasp opened with musketry and cannon. The sea, lashed 
into fury by a two days' cyclone, was running mountain high. 
The vessels rolled till the muzzles of their guns dipped in the 

1 One reason for the success of the American navy was the experience 
it had gained in the clash with France, and also in a war with Tripoli in 
1801-1805. At that time the Christian nations whose ships sailed the 
Mediterranean Sea were accustomed to pay annual tribute to Tripoli and 
other piratical states on the north coast of Africa, under pain of having 
their ships seized and their sailors reduced to slavery. A dispute with 
the United States led to a war which gained for our ships the freedom of 
the Mediterranean. 



WAH FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 237 

water. But the crews cheered lustily and the fight went on. 
When at last the crew of the Wasp boarded the Frolic, they 
were amazed to find that, save the man at the wheel and 
three officers who threw down their swords, not a living soul 
was visible. The crew had gone below to avoid the terrible fire 
of the Wasp. Scarcely was the battle over when the British 
frigate Poictiers bore down under a press of sail, recaptured 
what was left of the Frolic, and took the Wasp in addition. 

During 1813 the Constitution took the Java ; the Hornet 
sank the Peacock ; the Enterprise captured the Boxer off 
Portland, Maine. These and many more made up the list 
of American victories. But there were British victories also. 
The Argus, after destroying twenty-seven vessels in the Eng- 
lish Channel, was taken by the Pelican ; the Essex, after a 
marvelous cruise around South America, was captured by two 
frigates. The Chesapeake was forced to strike to the Shannon. 

The Chesapeake was at anchor in Boston harbor, in com- 
mand of James Lawrence, when the British frigate Shannon 
ran in and challenged her. Lawrence went out at once, and 
after a short, fierce fight was defeated and killed. As his 
men were carrying him below, mortally wounded, he cried, 
" Don't give up the ship ! " words which Perry, as we have seen, 
afterwards put on his flag, and which his countrymen have 
never since forgotten.^ 

268. The British blockade the Coast. — Never, in the course 
of her existence, had England suffered such a series of defeats 
as we inflicted on her navy in 1812 and 1813. The record 
of those years caused a tremendous excitement in Great 
Britain, all the vessels she could spare were sent over, and 
with the opening of 1814, the whole coast of the United 
States was declared to be in a state of blockade.^ In New 
England, Eastport (Moose Island) and Nantucket Island 

1 On the naval war read Maclay's History of the Navy, Part Third ; 
Roosevelt's Naval War of 1812; McMaster, Vol. IV., pp. 70-108. 

2 All except New England had been blockaded since 1812 ; and in 1813 
the coast of Chesapeake Bay had been ravaged. 



238 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 

quickly fell. A British force went up the Penobscot to 
Hampden, and burned the Adams. The eastern half of Maine 
was seized, and Stonington, in Connecticut, was bombarded. 

269. Burning of Washington. — Further down the coast a 
great fleet and army from Bermuda, under General Ross and 
Admiral Cockburn, came up the Chesapeake Bay, landed in 
Maryland, and marched to Washington. At Bladensburg, a 
little hamlet near the capital, the Americans made a feeble 
show of resistance, but soon fled; and about dark on an 
August night, 1814, a detachment of the British reached 
Washington, marched to the Capitol, fired a volley through 
the windows, entered, and set fire to the building. When the 
fire began to burn brightly, Ross and Cockburn led the troops 
to the President's house, which was sacked and burned. Next 
morning the torch was applied to the Treasury building 
and to the Departments of State and War. Several private 
houses and a printing office were also destroyed before the 
British began a hasty retreat to the Chesapeake.^ 

270. Baltimore attacked. — Once on the bay, the army was 
hurried on board the ships and carried to Baltimore, where 
for a day and a night they shelled Port McHenry.^ Failing 
to take it, and Ross having been killed, Cockburn reembarked 
and sailed away to Halifax. 

271. The Victory at New Orleans. — The army was taken to 
Jamaica in order that it might form part of one of the greatest 
war expeditions England had ever fitted out. Fifty of the 
finest ships her navy could furnish, mounting 1000 guns and 
carrying on their decks 20,000 veteran soldiers and sailors, had 
been quietly assembled at Jamaica during the autumn of 1814, 
and in November sailed for New Orleans. 

News of this intended attack had reached Madison, and he 

1 Adams's History, Vol. VIII., Chaps. 5, 6 ; McMaster's History, Vol. 
IV., pp. 135-148 ; Memoirs of Dolly Madison, Chap. 8. 

2 Francis S. Key, an American held prisoner on one of the British 
ships, composed the words of The Star- Spangled Banner while watching 
the bombardment. 



WAR FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 239 

had given the duty of defending New Orleans to Andrew 
Jackson of Tennessee, one of the most extraordinary men our 
country has produced. The British landed at the entrance of 
Lake Borgne in December, 1814, and hurried to the banks of 
the Mississippi. But Jackson was more than a match for them. 
Gathering such a force of fighting men as he could, he 
hastened from the city and with all possible speed threw up 
a line of rude earthworks, and waited to be attacked. This 
line the British under General Pakenham attacked on Janu- 
ary 8, 1815, and were twice driven back with frightful loss of 
life. Never had such a defeat been inflicted on a British army. 
The loss in killed, wounded, and missing was 2036 men. 
Jackson lost seventy-one men. Five British regiments which 
entered the battle 3000 strong reported 1750 men killed, 
wounded, and missing.^ 

272. Peace. — For a month after this defeat the British lin- 
gered in their camp. At last, in February, the army departed 
to attack a fort on Mobile Bay. The fort was taken, and two 
days later the news of peace put an end to war. The treaty 
was signed at Ghent in December, 1814; but it did not reach 
the United States till February, 1815. 

In the treaty not a word was said about the impressment of 
our sailors, nor about the right of search, nor about the Orders 
in Council, nor about inciting the Indians to attack our fron- 
tier, all of which Madison had declared to be causes of the 
war. Yet we gained much. Our naval victories made us 
the equal of any maritime power, while at home the war did 
far more to arouse a national sentiment, consolidate the union, 
and make us a nation than any event which had yet occurred. 

SUMMARY 

1. The land war may be divided into 

A. War along the frontier. 

B. War along the Atlantic coast. 

C. War along the Gulf coast. 

1 Adams's History, Vol. VIII., Chaps. 12-14; McMaster, Vol. IV., 
pp. 182-190. 



240 STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 



2. War along the Canadian frontier resulted in a gain to neither side. In 

1812 Americans were beaten at Detroit and at Queenstown, and 
failed to invade Canada. In 1813 the Americans were beaten at 
Frenchtown, but defeated the Canadians at Forts Meigs and Stephen- 
son, and at the Thames River, and recovered Detroit, Perry won 
the battle of Lake Erie. The Americans failed in the attempt to 
take Montreal. In 1814 the battles of Chippewa and Lundys Lane 
were won, and Fort Erie was taken. But the British burned Buffalo 
and Black Rock and drove the Americans out of Canada. Mc- 
Donough won the battle of Lake Champlain. 

3. During 1812-13 the British blockaded the coast from the east end of Long 

Island south to the Mississippi. New England was not blockaded 
till 1814. Then depredations began, and during the year Washing- 
ton was taken and partly burned, and Baltimore attacked. 

4. Later in the year the British, after the attack on Baltimore, went 

south, and early in 1815 were beaten by Jackson at New Orleans. 
The navy won a series of successive victories. The defeats were 

about half as numerous as the victories. 
Peace was announced in February, 1815. 



5. 



6. 



Detroit . 



Niagara . 



St. Lawrence. 



1812. Hull surrenders Detroit. 

1812. Harrison attempts to recover it. 

1813. Frenchtown. 
Battle of Lake Erie. 

Harrison invades Canada and wins 
the battle of the Thames. 

1812. Van Rensselaer repulsed. 

1813. York taken and burned. 

1814. Battles of Chippewa and Lundys 

Lane, and capture of Fort Erie. 
Americans driven from Canada. 

1813. Expedition against Montreal. 

1814. British come down from Canada. 
Defeated on Lake Champlain. 



^1 



1812. 
1813. 
1814. 



181i 



Blockade of the coast south of Rhode Island. 

Ravages on the coast of Chesapeake Bay. 

Entire coast blockaded. 

New England attacked. 

Washington taken and partly burned. 

Baltimore attacked. 

Victory at New Orleans. 



The ship duels. 

The fleet victories on the Lakes. 



THE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR 
COUNTRY 

CHAPTER XIX 

PROGRESS OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815 

273. Twenty-five years had now gone by since Washington 
was inaugurated, and in the course of these years our country 
had made wonderful progress. In 1790 the United States was 
bounded west by the Mississippi River. By 1815 Louisiana 
had been purchased, the Columbia River had been discovered, 
and the Oregon country had been explored to the Pacific. In 
1790 the inhabitants of the United States numbered less than 
four millions. In 1815 they were eight millions. In 1790 
there were but thirteen states in the Union, and two territories. 
In 1815 there were eighteen states and five territories. 

274. The Three Streams of Westward Emigration. — Sparse as 
was the population in 1789, the rage for emigration had already 
seized the people, and long before 1790 the emigrants were pour- 
ing over the mountains in three great streams. One, composed 
of New England men, was pushing along the borders of Lake 
Champlain and up the Mohawk valley. A second, chiefly 
from Pennsylvania and Virginia, was spreading itself over the 
rich valleys of what are now West Virginia and Kentucky. 
Further south a third stream of emigrants, mostly from Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina, had gone over the Blue Ridge Moun- 
tains, and was creeping down the valley of the Tennessee 
River. ^ 

1 For an account of the movement of population westward along these 
routes, see The First Century of the Bepublic, pp. 211-238. 

241 



242 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

For months each year the Ohio was dotted with flatboats. 
One observer saw fifty leave Pittsburg in five weeks. Another 
estimated that ten thousand emigrants floated by Marietta dur- 
ing 1788. As this never-ending stream of population spread 
over the wilderness, building cabins, felling trees, clearing the 
land, and driving off the game, the Indians took alarm and 
determined to expel them. 

275. The Indian War. — During the summer of 1786 the 
tribes whose hunting grounds lay in eastern Tennessee and Ken- 
tucky took the warpath, sacked and burned a little settlement 
on the Holston, and spread terror along the whole frontier. 
But the settlers in their turn rose, and inflicted on the Indians a 
signal punishment. One expedition from Tennessee burned 
three Cherokee towns. Another from Kentucky crossed the 
Ohio, penetrated the Indian country, burned eight towns, and 
laid waste hundreds of acres of standing corn. Had the Indians 
been left to themselves, they would, after this punishment, 
have remained quiet. But the British, who still held the 
frontier post at Detroit, roused them, and in 1790 they were 
again at work, ravaging the country north of the Ohio. They 
rushed down on Big Bottom (northwest of Marietta) and swept 
it from the face of the earth. St. Clair, who was governor of 
the Northwest Territory, sent against them an expedition 
which won some success — just enough to enrage and not 
enough to cow them. 

276. St. Clair ; Wayne. — Not a settlement north of the Ohio 
was now safe, and had it not been for the men of Kentucky, 
who came to the relief, and in two expeditions held the Indians 
in check till the Federal government could act, every one of 
them would have been destroyed. The plan of the Secretary 
of War was to build a chain of forts from Cincinnati to Lake 
Michigan, and late in 1791 St. Clair set off to begin the work. 
But the Indians surprised him on a branch of the Wabash 
Eiver, and inflicted on him one of the most dreadful defeats 
in our history. Public opinion now forced him to resign his 
command, which was given to Anthony Wayne, who, after 



PROGRESS BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815 243 

two years of careful preparation, crushed the Indian power 
at the falls of the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio. The 
next year, 1795, a treaty was made at Greenville, by which 
the Indians gave up all claim to the soil south and east of 
a boundary line drawn from what is now Cleveland southwest 
to the Ohio River (see the map on p. 193). 

277. Kentucky and Vermont become States. — These Indian 
wars almost stopped emigration to the country north of the 
Ohio, though not into Kentucky or Tennessee. For several 
years past the people of the District of Kentucky had been 
desirous to come into the Union, but had been unable to make 
terms with Virginia, to which Kentucky belonged. At last 
consent v^ras obtained and the application made to Congress. 
But the Kentuckians were slave owners, were identified with 
Southern and Western interests, and cared little for the com- 
mercial interests of the East, and as this influence could be 
strongly felt in the Senate, where each state had two votes, 
it was decided to offset those of Kentucky by admitting the 
Eastern state of Vermont. 

What is now Vermont was once the property of New Hamp- 
shire, was settled by people from New England under town 
rights granted by the governor of New Hampshire, and was 
called "New Hampshire Grants." In 1764, however, the gov- 
ernor of New York obtained a royal order giving New York 
jurisdiction over the Grants on the ground that in 1664 the 
possessions of the Duke of York extended to the Connecticut 
River. Then began a controversy which was still raging bit- 
terly when the Revolution opened, and the Green Mountain 
Boys asked recognition as a state and admission into the 
Congress, a request which the other states were afraid to 
grant lest by so doing they should offend New York. There- 
upon the people chose delegates to a convention (in 1777), 
which issued a declaration of independence, declared "New 
Connecticut, alias Vermont," a state, and made a constitution. 
In this shape matters stood in 1791, when as an offset to Ken- 
tucky Vermont was admitted into the Union. As she was a 



244 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 




state with governor, legislature, and constitution, she came in 
at once. Kentucky had to make a constitution, and so was 
not admitted till 1792. Four years later (1796) Congress 
admitted Tennessee. 

278. The New Territories; Ohio becomes a State. — The 
quieting of the Indians by Wayne in 1794, the opening of the 
Mississippi Kiver to American trade by Spain in 1795, coupled 



PROGRESS BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815 



245 



with cheap lands and low taxes, caused another rush of popu- 
lation into the Ohio valley. Between 1795 and 1800 so many- 
came that the Northwest Territory was cut in twain and the 
new territory of Indiana was organized in 1800. The accept- 
ance by Spain in 1795 of 31° north latitude as the boundary of 
the Floridas, gave the United States control of the greater 
part of old West Florida, which in 1798 was organized as the 
Mississippi Territory. Hardly a year now elapsed without 



-n 



.^ '-^ 



- 1 I'j 









^jjf^'if, ^j^;,;i^Mi (tiia^ ,'^1 "• ^X^ J^'^i'^-^ li'iiiTu^, 



^,:'u'>r 




Cincinnati in 18101 



some marked sign of Western development. In 1800 Congress, 
under the influence of William Henry Harrison, the first dele- 
gate from the ]\^orthwest Territory, made a radical change in 
its land policy. Up to that time every settler must pay cash. 
After 1800 he could buy on credit, pay in four annual install- 
ments, and west of the Muskingum River could purchase as 
little as 320 acres. This credit system led to another rush into 
the Ohio valley, and so many people entered the Northwest 
Territory, that in 1803 the southern part of it was admitted into 
the Union as the state of Ohio. 

1 From an old print. 



246 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

In 1802 Georgia ceded her western lands, which were added 
to the Mississippi Territory. From the Louisiana purchase 
there was organized in 1804 the territory of Orleans, and in 
1805 the territory of Louisiana (see p. 247). In 1805, also, 
the lower peninsula of Michigan was cut off from Indiana and 
organized as Michigan Territory. In 1809 the territory of 
Illinois was organized (p. 247). In 1812 the territory of Or- 
leans became the state of Louisiana. 

The third census showed that in 1810 the population of the 
United States was 7,200,000, and that of these over 1,000,000 
were in the states and territories west of the Alleghanies. 

279. Indian Troubles ; Battle of Tippecanoe. — As the settlers 
north of the Ohio moved further westward, and as more came 
in, their farms and settlements touched the Indian boundary 
line. In Indiana, where, save a strip sixty miles wide along 
the Ohio Eiver, and a few patches scattered over the territory, 
every foot of soil was owned by the Indians, this crowding 
led to serious consequences. The Indians first grew restive. 
Then, under the lead of Tecumthe, or Tecumseh, they founded 
a league or confederacy against the whites, and built a town on 
Tippecanoe Creek, just where it enters the Wabash. Finally, 
when Harrison, who was governor of Indiana Territory, bought 
the Indian rights to the Wabash valley, the confederacy refused 
to recognize the sale, and gave such signs of resistance that 
Harrison marched against them, and in 1811 fought the battle 
of Tippecanoe and burned the Indian village. For a time it 
was thought the victory was as signal as that of Wayne. But 
the Indians were soon back on the old site, and in our second 
war with Great Britain they sided with the British. 

280. Industrial Progress. — In 1789 our country had no 
credit and no revenue, and was burdened with a great debt 
which very few people believed would ever be paid. But 
when the government called in all the old worthless Con- 
tinental money and certificates and gave the people bonds in 
exchange for them, when it began to lay taxes and pay its 
debts, when it had power to regulate trade, when the National 



248 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

Bank was established and the merchants were given bank bills 
that would pass at their face value all over the country, busi- 
ness began to revive. The money which the people had been 
hiding away for years was brought out and put to useful 
purposes. Banks sprang up all over the country, and com- 
panies were founded to manufacture woolen cloth and cotton 
cloth, to build bridges, to construct turnpike roads, and to 
cut canals. Between 1789 and 1795 the first carpet was woven 
in the United States, the first broom made from broom corn, 
the first cotton factory opened, the first gold and silver coins 
of the United States were struck at the mint, the first news- 
paper was printed in the territory northwest of the Ohio Kiver, 
the first printing press was set up in Tennessee, the first 
geography of the United States was published, and daily 
newspapers were issued in Baltimore and Boston. It was 
during this period that a hunter named Guinther discovered 
anthracite coal in Pennsylvania; that Whitney invented the 
cotton gin; that Samuel Slater built the first mill for making 
cotton yarns ; that Eli Terry started the manufacture of clocks 
as a business ; that cotton sewing thread was first manufac- 
tured in the United States at Pawtucket, E.I. ; and that the 
first turnpike in our country was completed. This extended 
from Philadelphia to Lancaster, a distance of sixty-two miles. 
281. The Period of Commercial and Agricultural Prosperity. 
— Just at this time came another change of great impor- 
tance. Till 1793 we had scarcely any commerce with the 
West Indies. England would not allow our vessels to go to 
her islands. Neither would Spain, nor Prance, except to a 
very limited degree. It was the policy of these three coun- 
tries to confine such trade as far as possible to their own 
merchants. But in 1793 France, you remember, made war on 
England and opened her West Indian ports to all neutral 
nations. The United States was a neutral, and our merchants 
at once began to trade with the islanders. What these people 
wanted was lumber, flour, grain, provisions, salt pork, and 
fish. All this led to a demand, first, for ships, then for 



PROGRESS BETWEEN 1790 AND 1816 249 

sailors, and then for provisions and lumber — to the benefit 
of every part of the country except the South. New England 
was the lumber, fishing, shipbuilding, and commercial sec- 
tion. New York and Pennsylvania produced grain, flour, 
lumber, and carried on a great commerce as well. So profit- 
able was it to raise wheat, that in many parts of Virginia the 
people stopped raising tobacco and began to make flour, and 
soon made Virginia the second flour-producing state in the 
Union. Until after 1795 the people of the Western States 
were cut off from this trade. But in that year the treaty with 
Spain was made, and the people of the West were then allowed 
to float their produce to New Orleans and there sell it or 
ship it to the West Indies. Kentucky then became a flour- 
producing state. 

As a consequence of all this, people stopped putting their 
money into roads and canals and manufactures, and put it into 
farming, shipbuilding, and commerce. Between 1793 and 
1807, therefore, our country enjoyed a period of commercial 
and agricultural prosperity. But with 1807 came another 
change. In that year the embargo was laid, and for more than 
fifteen months no vessels were allowed to leave the ports of the 
United States for foreign countries. Up to this time our 
people had been so much engaged in commerce and agricul- 
ture, that they had not begun to manufacture. In 1807 all 
the blankets, all the woolen cloth, cotton cloth, carpets, hard- 
ware, china, glass, crockery, knives, tools, and a thousand 
other things used every day were made for us in Great 
Britain. Cotton grown in the United States was actually sent 
to England to be made into cloth, which was then carried back 
to the United States to be used. 

282. "Infant Manufactures." — As the embargo prevented 
our ships going abroad and foreign ships coming to us, these 
goods could no longer be imported. The people must either 
go without or make them at home. They decided, of course, 
to make them at home, and all patriotic citizens were called 
on to help, which they did in five ways. 



250 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

First, in each of the cities and large towns people met and 
formed a " Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Manu- 
factures." Every patriotic man and woman was expected to 
join one of them, and in so doing to take a pledge not to buy 
or use or wear any article of foreign make, provided it could 
be made in this country. 

In the second place, these societies for the encouragement of 
domestic manufactures, "infant manufactures," as they were 
called, offered prizes for the best piece of homemade linen, , 
homemade cotton cloth, or woolen cloth. 

In the third place, they started "exchanges," or shops, in 
the cities and large towns, to which anybody who could knit 
mittens or socks, or make boots and shoes or straw bonnets, 
or spin flax or wool, or make anything else that the people 
needed, could send them to be sold. 

In the fourth place, men who had money came forward and 
formed companies to erect mills and factories for the manu- 
facture of all sorts of things. If you were to see the 
acts passed by the legislatures of the states between 1808 
and 1812, you would find that very many of them were 
charters for iron works, paper mills, thread works, factories 
for making cotton and woolen cloth, oilcloth, boots, shoes, 
rope. 

In the fifth place, the legislatures of the states passed reso- 
lutions asking their members to wear clothes made of material 
produced in the United States,^ offered bounties for the best 
wool, and exempted the factories from taxation and the mill 
hands from militia and jury duty. 

Thus encouraged, manufactures sprang up in the North, and 
became so numerous that in 1810, when the census of popula- 
tion was taken, Congress ordered that statistics of manufac- 
tures should be collected at the same time. It was then found 
that the value of the goods manufactured in the United States 
in 1810 was $173,000,000. 

1 McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. III. , pp. 
496-509. 



PROGRESS BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815 251 

283. Internal Improvements : Roads; Canals; Steamboats. — 

But there was yet another great change for the better which 
took place between 1790 and 1815. We have seen how during 
this quarter of a century our country grew in area, how 
the people increased in number, how new states and terri- 
tories were made, how agriculture and commerce prospered, 
and how manufactures arose. It is now time to see how the 
people improved the means of interstate commerce and com- 
munication. 

You will remember that in 1790 there were no bridges over 
the great rivers of the country, that the roads were very bad, 
that all journeys were made on horseback or in stagecoaches or 
in boats, and that it was not then possible to go as far in ten 
hours as we can now go in one. You will remember, also, 
that the people were moving westward in great numbers. 

As the people thus year by year went further and further 
westward, a demand arose for good roads to connect them with 
the East. The merchants on the seaboard wanted to send 
them hardware, clothing, household goods, farming imple- 
ments, and bring back to the seaports the potash, lumber, flour, 
skins, and grain with which the settlers paid for these things. 
If they were too costly, frontiersmen could not buy them. If 
the roads were bad, the difficulty of getting merchandise to 
the frontier would make them too costly. People living in the 
towns and cities along the seaboard were no longer content 
with the old-fashioned slow way of travel. They wanted to 
get their letters more often, make their journeys and have 
their freight carried more quickly.^ 

About 1805, therefore, men began to think of reviving the 
old idea of canals, which had been abandoned in 1793, and 
one of these canal companies, the Chesapeake and Delaware 
Canal, applied to Congress for aid. This brought up the ques- 
tion of a system of internal improvements at national expense, 
and Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, was asked 

1 McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. III., pp. 
462-465. 



252 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

to send a plan for such a system to Congress, which he did. 
Congress never approved it. 

284. The National Pike. — Public sentiment, however, led to 
the commencement of a highway to the West known as the 
National Pike, or the Cumberland Koad. When Ohio was 
admitted into the Union as a state in 1803, Congress promised 
that part of the money derived from the sale of land in Ohio 
should be used to build a road from some place on the Ohio 




Phoenix 1 



Eiver to tide water. By 1806 the money so set apart amounted 
to $12,000, and with this was begun the construction of 
a broad pike from Cumberland (on the Potomac) in Maryland 
to Wheeling (on the Ohio) in West Virginia. ^ 

285. Steamboats. — This increasing demand for cheap trans- 
portation now made it possible for Fulton to carry into success- 
ful operation an idea he had long had in mind. For twenty 
years past inventors had been exhibiting steamboats. James 
Eumsey had exhibited one on the Potomac. John Fitch had 

1 From an oil painting. 

2 McMaster's History, Vol. III., pp. 469-470. 



PROGRESS BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815 253 

shown one on the Delaware in 1787. (See p. 190.) In 
1804 Robert Fulton exhibited a steamboat on the Seine at 
Paris in France ; Oliver Evans had a steam scow on the Dela- 
ware River at Philadelphia; and John Stevens crossed the 
Hudson from Hoboken to New York in a steamboat of his own 
construction. In 1806 Stevens built another, the Phoenix.^ 

These men were ahead of their time, and it was not till the 
August day, 1807, when Robert Fulton made his experiment 
on the Hudson, that the era of the steamboat opened. His 
vessel, called the Clermont^ made the trip up the river from 
New York to Albany in thirty-two hours. 




Model of the Clermont « 

Then the usefulness of the invention was at last appreci- 
ated, and in 1808 a line of steam vessels went up and down the 
Hudson. In 1809 Stevens sent his Phoenix by sea to Phila- 
delphia and ran it on the Delaware. Another steamboat was 
on the Raritan River, and a third on Lake Champlain. In 

1811 a boat steamed from Pittsburg to New Orleans, and in 

1812 steam ferryboats plied between what is now Jersey City 
and New York, and between Philadelphia and Camden.^ 

286. The Currency; the Mint. — Quite as marvelous was the 
change which in five and twenty years had taken place in 
money matters. When the Constitution became law in 1789, 

1 Preble's History of Steam Navigation, pp. 35-66 ; Thurston's Robert 
Fulton in Makers of America Series. 

2 Made from the original drawings, and now in the National Museum. 
^ On the early steamboats see McMaster's History of the People of the 

United States, Vol. III., pp. 486-494. 



254 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

there were no United States coins and no United States bills 
or notes in circulation. There was no such thing as a national 
currency. Except the gold and silver pieces of foreign nations, 
there was no money which would pass all over our country. 
To-day a treasury note, a silver certificate, a national bank 
bill, is received in payment of a debt in any state or territory. 
In 1789 the currency was foreign coins and state paper. But 
the Constitution forbade the states ever to make any more 
money, and as their bills of credit already issued would 
wear out by use, the time was near when there would be no 
currency except foreign coins. To prevent this. Congress in 

1791 ordered a mint to be established at Philadelphia, and in 

1792 named the coins to be struck, and ordered that whoever 
would bring gold or silver to the mint should have it made 
into coins without cost to him. This was free coinage. As 
both gold and silver were to be coined, the currency was to 
be bimetallic, or of two metals.^ The ratio of silver and gold 
was 15 to 1. That is, fifteen pounds' weight of silver must 
be made into as many dollars' worth of coins as one pound 
of gold. The silver coins were to be the dollar, half and 
quarter dollar, dime and half dime ; the gold were to be the 
eagle, half eagle, and quarter eagle. Out of copper were to be 
struck cents and half cents. As some years must elapse 
before our national coins could become abundant, certain 
foreign coins were made legal tender. 

287. ** Federal Money." — The appearance of the new money 
was followed by another change for the better. In colonial 
days the merchants and the people expressed the debts they 
owed, or the value of the goods they sold, in pounds, shillings, 
and pence, or in Spanish dollars. During the Revolution, and 
after it, this was continued, although the Continental Congress 
always kept its accounts, and made its appropriations, in dol- 
lars. But when the people began to see dollars, half dollars, 
and dimes bearing the words " United States of America," 

1 The first silver coin was struck in 1794 ; the first gold, in 1795 ; the 
first cent and half cent, in 1793. 



PROGRESS BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815 255 

they knew that there really was a national coinage, or "Fed- 
eral money," as they called it, and between 1795 and 1798, one 
state after another ordered its treasurer to use Federal money 
instead of pounds, shillings, and pence ; and thereafter in 
laying taxes, and voting appropriations for any purpose, the 
amount was expressed in dollars and cents. The merchants 
and the people were much slower in adopting the new terms ; 
but they came at last into general use. 

288. Rise of the State Banks. — Had the people been forced 
to depend on the United States mint for money wherewith to 
pay the butcher and the baker and the shoemaker, they would 
not have been able to make their payments, for the machinery 
at the mint was worked by hand, and the number of dimes and 
quarters turned out each year was small. But they were not, 
for as soon as confidence was restored, banks chartered by the 
states sprang up in the chief cities in the East, and as each 
issued notes, the people had all the currency they wanted. 

In 1790, when Congress established the National Bank, there 
were but four state banks in the whole country: one in 
Philadelphia, one in New York, one in Boston, and one in 
Baltimore. By 1800 there were twenty-six, in 1805 there 
were sixty-four, and in 1811 there were eighty-eight. 

In that year (1811) the charter of the National Bank ex- 
pired, and as Congress would not renew it, many more state 
banks were created, each hoping to get a part of the business 
formerly done by the National Bank. Such was the " mania,'' 
as it was called, for banks, that the number rose from eighty- 
eight in 1811, to two hundred and eight in 1814, which was 
far more than the people really needed. 

Nevertheless, all went well until the British came up Chesa- 
peake Bay and burned Washington. Then the banks in that 
part of the country boxed up all their gold and silver and sent 
it away, lest the British should get it. This forced them to 
" suspend specie payments " ; that is, refuse to give gold or 
silver in exchange for their own paper. As soon as they sus- 
pended, others did the same, till in a few weeks every one 
McM. Hist. —15 



256 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

along the seaboard from Albany to Savannah, and every one 
in Ohio, had stopped paying coin. The New England banks 
did not suspend. 

289. No Small Change. — The consequences of the suspension 
were very serious. In the first place, all the small silver coins, 
the dimes, half dollars, and quarter dollars, disappeared at once, 
and the people were again forced to do as they had done in 
1789, and use " ticket money." All the cities and towns, great 
and small, printed one, two, three, six and one fourth, twelve 
and one half, twenty-five, and fifty-cent tickets, and sold them 
to the people for bank notes. Steamboats, stagecoaches, and 
manufacturing companies, merchants, shopkeepers — in fact, 
all business men — did the 'same. 

In the second place, as the banks would not exchange specie 
for their notes, people who did not know all about a bank 
would not take its bills except at very much less than their 
face value. That is, a dollar bill of a Philadelphia bank was 
not worth more than ninety cents in paper money at New York, 
and seventy-five cents at Boston. This state of things greatly 
increased the cost of travel and business between the states, 
and prevented the government using the money collected at 
the seaports in the East to pay debts due in the West.^ 

290. The Second Bank of the United States. — Lest this state 
of affairs should occur again. Congress, exercising its constitu- 
tional "power to regulate the currency," chartered a second 
National Bank in 1816, and modeled it after the old one. 
Again the parent bank was at Philadelphia; but the capital 
was now $35,000,000. Again the public money might be 
deposited in the bank and its branches, which could be estab- 
lished wherever the directors thought proper. Again the 
bank could issue paper money to be received by the govern- 
ment in payment of taxes, land, and all debts. 

The Republicans had always denied the right of Congress to 
charter a bank. But the question was never tested until 1819, 
when Maryland attempted to collect a tax laid on the branch 
1 McMaster's History, Vol. IV., pp. 280-318. 



PROGRESS BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815 



257 



at Baltimore. The case reached the Supreme Court of the 
United States, which decided that a state could not tax a cor- 
poration chartered by Congress ; and that Congress had power 
to charter anything, even a bank. 



SUMMARY 

The census returns of 1790 showed that population was going west 
along three highways. 

As a result of this movement, Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), 
Tennessee (1796), and Ohio (1803) entered the Union. 

The population of the country increased from 3,380,000 in 1790 to 
7,200,000 in 1810; and the area from about 828,000 to 2,000,000 square 
miles. 

The period 1790-1810 was one of marked industrial progress, and of 
great commercial and agricultural prosperity. It was during this 
time that manufactures arose, that many roads and highways and 
bridges were built, and that the steamboat was introduced. 

A national mint had been established. The charter of the National 
Bank had expired, and numbers of state banks had arisen to take its 
place. These banks had suspended specie payment, and the govern- 
ment had been forced to charter a new National Bank. 



{Checked by Indian war. 
Indians quieted by Wayne. 
Population again moved westward. 



1?91. Vermont. 

' 1792. Kentucky. 

1796. Tennessee. 

1803. Ohio. 

I 1812. Louisiana. 



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New states. 



New territories. 



1798. Mississippi. 

1800. Indiana. 

1802. Mississippi enlarged. 

1804. Orleans. 

1805. Michigan. 
1805. Louisiana (called Missouri 

after 1812). 

1809. Illinois. 

1795. Spain accepts 31° as the boundary. 

1802. Georgia cedes her western territory. 

1803. Louisiana purchased from France. 



258 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 



First carpet mill. 

First brooms. 

First United States gold and silver coins. 

First press in Tennessee. 

Daily newspapers. 

Discovery of hard coal. 

Cotton gin. 

Manufacture of clocks. 

Sewing thread. 



Rise of 
manufactures. 



Agricultural Progress 



Financial Condi- 
tion . . . . 



Improvements in Trans- J 
portation 






Dependence of United States on Great 

Britain before 1807. 
Effect of the embargo. 
Manner of encouraging manufactures. 

Effect of the French war. 



State of 

agriculture 

in 



New England. 
New York and Pennsyl- 
vania. 
The South. 



Demand for roads and canals. 
The national pike. 

( Early forms. 
I Fitch's. 
Steamboats, i Fulton's. 

Stevens's. 

Rapid introduction of. 



The United States mint established. 
Free coinage. 
Bimetallism. 
Coins struck. 
I Federal money comes slowly into use. 

What led to the chartering of state 

banks. 
Their rapid increase. 
Effect of the expiration of the charter 

of the Bank of the United States. 
General suspension in 1814. 
Reason for chartering the second Bank 

of the United States. 



CHAPTER XX 



SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES 




291. Monroe inaugurated. — The administration of Madison 
ended on March 4, 1817, and on that day James Monroe and 
Daniel D. Tompkins were sworn into office.' They had been 
nominated at Washington in February, 1816, 
by a caucus of Eepublican members of Con- 
gress, for no such thing as a national con- 
vention for the nomination of a President 
had as yet been thought of. The Federal- 
ists did not hold a caucus ; but it was under- 
stood that their electors would vote for 
Eufus King for President.^ 

292. Death of the Federalist Party. — The 
inauguration of Monroe opens a new era 
of great interest and importance in our 
history. Prom 1793 to 1815, the questions which divided 
the people into Federalists and Republicans were all in some 
way connected with foreign countries. They were neutral 
rights. Orders in Council, French Decrees, impressment, em- 
bargoes, non-intercourse acts, the conduct of England, the 
insolence of the French Directory, the triumphs and the treach- 
ery of Napoleon. Every Federalist sympathized with Eng- 
land ; every Republican was a warm supporter of France. 

But with the close of the war in 1815, all this ended. Na- 
poleon was sent to St. Helena. Europe was at peace, and there 
was no longer any foreign question to divide the people into 

1 In 1816 there were nineteen states in the Union (Indiana having been 
admitted in that year), and of these Monroe carried sixteen and King 
three. The inauguration took place in the open air for the first time 
since 1789. 

259 



260 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

Federalists and Eepublicans. This division, therefore, ceased 
to exist, and after 1816 the Federalist party never put up a 
candidate for the presidency. It ceased to exist not only as 
a national but even as a state party, and for twelve years 
there was one great party, the Eepublican, or, as it soon began 
to be called, the Democratic. 

293. The *' Era of Good Feeling." — A sure sign of the disap- 
pearance of party and party feeling was seen very soon after 
Monroe was inaugurated. In May, 1817, he left Washington 
with the intention of visiting and inspecting all the forts and 
navy yards along the eastern seaboard and the Great Lakes. 
Beginning at Baltimore, he went to New York, then to Boston, 
and then to Portland ; where he turned westward, and crossing 
New Hampshire and Vermont to Lake Champlain, made his 
way to Ogdensburg, where he took a boat to Sacketts Harbor 
and Niagara, whence he went to Buffalo, and Detroit, and then 
back to Washington. 

Wherever he went, the people came by thousands to greet 
him; but nowhere was the reception so hearty as in New 
England, the stronghold of Federalism. "The visit of the 
President," said a Boston newspaper, " seems wholly to have 
allayed the storms of party. People now meet in the same room 
who, a short while since, would scarcely pass along the same 
street." Another said that since Monroe's arrival at Boston 
" party feeling and animosities have been laid aside, and but 
one great national feeling has animated every class of our citi- 
zens." So it was everywhere, and when, therefore, the Boston 
Sentinel called the times the " era of good feeling," the whole 
country took up the expression and used it, and the eight years 
of Monroe's administration have ever since been so called. 

294. Trouble with the Seminole Indians. -;- Though all was 
quiet and happy within our borders, events of great importance 
were happening along our northern., western, and southern 
frontier. During the war with England, the Creek Indians in 
Georgia and Alabama had risen against the white settlers and 
were beaten and driven out by Jackson and forced to take 



SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES 261 

refuge with the Seminoles in Florida. As they had been the 
allies of England, they fully expected that when peace was 
made, England would secure for them the territory of which 
Jackson had deprived them. When England did not do this, 
they grew sullen and savage, and in 1817 began to make raids 
over the border, run off cattle and murder men, women, and 
children. In order to stop these depredations, General Jack- 
son was sent to the frontier, and utterly disregarding the fact 
that the Creeks and Seminoles were on Spanish soil, he entered 
West Florida, took St. Marks and Pensacola, destroyed the 
Indian power, and hanged two English traders as spies. ^ 

295. The Canadian Boundary; Forty-ninth Parallel. — This 
was serious, for at the time the news reached Washington 
that Jackson had invaded Spanish soil and hanged two 
English subjects, important treaties were under way with 
Spain and G-reat Britain, and it was feared his violent acts 
would stop them. Happily no evil consequences followed, 
and in 1818 an agreement was reached as to the dividing line 
between the United States and British America. 

When Louisiana came to us, no limit was given to it on the 
north, and fifteen years had been allowed to pass without 
attempting to establish one. Now, however, the boundary 
was declared to be a line drawn south from the most north- 
western point of the Lake of the Woods to the forty-ninth 
parallel of north latitude and along this parallel to the summit 
of the Rocky Mountains. 

296. Joint Occupation of Oregon. — The country beyond the 
Rocky Mountains, the Oregon country, was claimed by both 
England and the United States ; so it was agreed in the treaty 
of 1818 that for ten years to come the country should be held 
in joint occupation. 

297. The Spanish Boundary Line. — One year later (1819) the 
boundary of Louisiana was completed by a treaty with Spain, 
which now sold us East and West Florida for f 5,000,000. 

1 Parton's Life of Jackson, Chaps. 34-36 ; McMaster's History, Vol. 
IV., pp. 430-456. 



262 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

Till this time we had always claimed that Louisiana extended 
across Texas as far as the Eio Grande. By the treaty this 
claim was given up, and the boundary became the Sabine 
River from the Gulf of Mexico to 32°, then a north line to the 
Red River; westward along this river to the 100th meridian; 
then northward to the Arkansas River, and westward to its 
source in the Rocky Mountains ; then a north line to 42°, and 
then along that parallel to the Pacific Ocean. ^ 

298. Russian Claims on the Pacific. — The Oregon country 
was thus restricted to 42° on the south, and though it had no 
limit on the north the Emperor of Russia (in 1822) undertook 
to fix one at 51°, which he declared should be the south bound- 
ary of Alaska. Oregon was thus to extend from 42° to 51°, and 
from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. But Russia had also 
founded a colony in California, and seemed to be preparing to 
shut the United States from the Pacific coast. Against all this 
John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, protested, telling 
the Russian minister that European powers no longer had a 
right to plant colonies in either North or South America. 

299. The Holy Allies and the South American Republics. — This 
was a new doctrine, and while the United States and Russia 
were discussing the boundary of Oregon, it became necessary 
to make another declaration regarding the rights of European 
powers in the two Americas. 

Ever since 1793, when Washington issued his proclamation 
of neutrality (p. 206), the policy of the United States had been 
to take no part in European wars, nor meddle in European 
politics. This had been asserted repeatedly by Washington, 
Jefferson, and Monroe,^ and during all the wars from 1793 to 
1815 had been carefully adhered to. It was supposed, of course, 
that if we did not meddle in the affairs of the Old World nations, 

1 McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. IV., 
pp. 457-480. 

2 See Washington's Farewell Address ; Jefferson's Inaugural Address, 
March 4, 1801 ; also his message to Congress, Oct. 17, 1803 ; Monroe's 
Inaugural Address, March 4, 1817, and messages, Dec. 2, 1817, Nov. 
17, 1818, Nov. 14, 1820 ; see also American History Leaflets, No. 4. 



SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES 



263 




they would not interfere in affairs over here. But about 1822 
it seemed likely that they would interfere very seriously. 

Beginning with 1810, the Spanish colonies of Mexico and 
South America (Chile, Peru, Buenos Ayres, Colombia) rebelled, 
formed republics, and in 1822 were acknowledged as free and 



264 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

independent powers by the United States. Spain, after vainly 
attempting to subdue them, appealed for help to the powers 
of Europe, which in 1815 had formed a Holy Alliance for the 
purpose of maintaining monarchical government. For a while 
these powers (Russia, Prussia, Austria, France) held aloof. 
But in 1823 they decided to help Spain to get back her old 
colonies, and invited Great Britain to attend a Congress be- 
fore which the matter was to be discussed. But Great Britain 
had no desire to see the little republics destroyed, and in the 
summer of 1823, the British Prime Minister asked the Amer- 
ican minister in London if the United States would join with 
England in a declaration warning the Holy Allies not to med- 
die with the South American republics. Thus, just at the time 
when Adams was protesting against European colonization in 
the Northwest, England suggested a protest against European 
meddling in the affairs of Spanish America. The opportunity 
was too good to be lost, and Adams succeeded in persuading 
President Monroe to make a protest in behalf of the nation 
against both forms of European interference in American 
affairs. Monroe thought it best to make the declaration 
independent of Great Britain, and in his annual message to 
Congress, December 2, 1823, he announced three great guiding 
principles now known as the 

300. Monroe Doctrine. — 

1. Taking up the matter in dispute with Russia, he declared 

that the American continents were no longer open to 
colonization by European nations. 

Referring to the conduct of the Holy Allies, he said, 

2. That the United States would not meddle in the political 

affairs of Europe. 

3. That European governments must not extend their system 

to any part of North or South America, nor oppress, nor 
in any other manner seek to control the destiny of any 
of the nations of this hemisphere.^ 
1 McMaster's With the Fathers, pp. 1-54 ; Tucker's Monroe Doctrine. 



SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES 



265 



The protest was effectual. The Holy Allies did not meddle 
in South American affairs, and the next year (1824) Kussia 
agreed to make no settlement south of 54° 40'. 

SUMMARY 

1. At the presidential election of 1816 the Federalist party, for the last 

time, voted for a presidential candidate. Party politics were dead, 
and the ' ' era of good feeling ' ' opened. 

2. Many important matters which were not settled by the Treaty of 

Ghent were disposed of : 

A. The forty-ninth parallel was made the boundary from a 
point south of the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. 

B. Oregon was held in joint occupation. 

C. The line 54° 40' was established. 

3. The boundary between the United States and the Spanish possessions 

was drawn, and Florida was acquired. 

4. The Monroe doctrine was announced. 



« 



iEnd of the European war. 
Disappearance of old party issues. 
Monroe elected President. 
The " era of good feeling." 



Seminole War . . 



The boundaries 



The Monroe Doctrine 



' Creek Indians join the English. 
Driven out of Alabama by Jackson. 
Take refuge with Florida Seminoles. 
After the war rise against the settlers in 

Georgia. 
Destroyed by Jackson. 

1818. Northern boundary of Louisiana 

settled to the Rocky Mountains. 

1819. Treaty with Spain settled the south 

boundary of Louisiana. 

1818. Joint occupation of Oregon. 

1824. North boundary of Oregon estab- 
lished at 54° 40'. 

The Holy Allies. 
The South American republics. 
Proposal of the Holy Allies to reduce the 
South American republics. 
. The Monroe Doctrine announced (1823). 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE RISING WEST 

301. Rush into the West. — The settlement of our boundary 
disputes, especially with Spain, was most timely, for even 
then people were hurrying across the mountains by tens of 
thousands, and building up new states in the Mississippi val- 
ley. The great demand for ships and provisions, which from 
1793 to 1807 had made business so brisk, had kept people on 
the seaboard and given them plenty of employment. But 
after 1812, and particularly after 1815, trade, commerce, and 
business on the seaboard declined, work became scarce, and 
men began to emigrate to the West, where they could buy 
land from the government on the installment plan, and where 
the states could not tax their farms until five years after the 
government had given them a title deed. Old settlers in central 
New York declared they had never seen so many teams and 
sleighs, loaded with women, children, and household goods, 
traveling westward, bound for Ohio, which was then but an- 
other name for the West. 

As the year wore away, the belief was expressed that when 
autumn came it would be found that the worst was over, and 
that the good times expected to follow peace would keep 
people on the seaboard. But the good times did not return. 
The condition of trade and commerce, of agriculture and 
manufactures, grew worse instead of better, and the western 
movement of population became greater than ever. 

302. Rapid Growth of Towns. — Fed by this never-ending 
stream of newcomers, the West was almost transformed. 
Towns grew and villages sprang up with a rapidity which even 



THE RISING WEST 267 

in these days of rapid and easy communication would be 
thought amazing. Mt. Pleasant, in Jefferson County, Ohio, 
was in 1810 a little hamlet of seven families living in cabins. 
In 1815 it contained ninety families, numbering 500 souls. 
The town of Vevay, Ind., was laid out in 1813, and was not 
much better than a collection of huts in 1814. But in 1816 
the traveler down the Ohio who stopped at Vevay found him- 
self at a flourishing county seat, with seventy-five dwellings, 
occupied by a hapi^y population who boasted of having among 
them thirty-one mechanics of various trades; of receiving 
three mails each week, and supporting a weekly newspaper 
called the Indiana Register. Forty-two thousand settlers are 
said to have come into Indiana in 1816, and to have raised 
the population to 112,000. 

Letters from New York describe the condition of that state 
west of Utica as one of astonishing prosperity. Log cabins 
were disappearing, and frame and brick houses taking their 
place. The pike from Utica to Buffalo was almost a continu- 
ous village, and the country for twenty miles on either side 
was filling up with an industrious population. Auburn, where 
twenty years before land sold for one dollar an acre, was the 
first town in size and wealth west of Utica, and land within 
its limits brought $7000 an acre. Fourteen miles west was 
Waterloo, on the Seneca River, a village which did not exist 
in 1814, and which in 1816 had fifty houses. Rochester, the 
site of which in 1815 was a wilderness, had a printing press, 
a bookstore, and a hundred houses in 1817.^ 

303. Scenes on the Western Highways. — By 1817 this migra- 
tion was at its height, and in the spring of that year families 
set forth from almost every village and town on the seaboard. 
The few that went from each place might not be missed ; but 
when they were gathered on any one of the great roads to the 
West, as that across New York, or that across Pennsylvania, 
they made an endless procession of wagons and foot parties. 

1 McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. IV., pp. 
381-386. 



268 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

A traveler who had occasion to go from iSTashville to Sa- 
vannah in January, 1817, declares that on the way he fell 
in with crowds of emigrants from Carolina and Georgia, all 
bound for the cotton lands of Alabama ; that he counted the 
flocks and wagons, and that — carts, gigs, coaches, and wagons, 

all told there were 207 conveyances, and more than 3800 

people. At Haverhill, in Massachusetts, a train of sixteen 
wagons, with 120 men, women, and children, from Durham, 
Me., passed in one day. They were bound for Indiana to 
buy a township, and were accompanied by their minister. 
Within thirteen days, seventy-three wagons and 450 emigrants 
had passed through the same town of Haverhill. At Easton, 
Pa., which lay on the favorite westward route for New Eng- 
landers, 511 wagons, with 3066 persons, passed in a month. 
They went in trains of from six to fifty wagons each day. 
The keeper of Gate No. 2, on the Dauphin turnpike, in 
Pennsylvania, returned 2001 families as having passed his 
gate, bound west, between March and December, 1817, and 
gave the number of people accompanying the vehicles as 
16,000. Along the New York route, which went across the 
state from Albany to Buffalo, up Lake Erie, and on by way of 
Chautauqua Lake to the Allegheny, the reports are just as 
astonishing. Two hundred and sixty wagons were counted 
going by one tavern in nine days, besides hundreds of people 
on horseback and on foot.^ 

304. Life on the Frontier. — The "mover," or, as we should 
say, the emigrant, would provide himself with a small wagon, 
very light, but strong enough to carry his family, provisions, 
bedding, and utensils; would cover it with a blanket or a 
piece of canvas or with linen which was smeared with tar 
inside to make it waterproof; and with two stout horses to 
pull it, would set out for the West, and make his way across 
Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, then the greatest city of the West, 
with a population of 7000. Some, as of 'old, would take boats 
and float down the Ohio; others would go on to Wheeling, 
1 McMaster's History, Vol. IV., pp. 387, 388. 




Under 6 Inhabitants p^rTi 
to the sq. mile y22A 
6 to 45 Inhabitants 

to the sq mile 
45 a7id 



DISTRIBUTION 

OF THE 

POPULATION OT THE UJSlTED STATES 

FOURTH CENSUS, 1820 _^o 






269 



270 * INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

be ferried across the river, and push into Ohio or Indiana or 
Illinois, there to " take up " a quarter section (160 acres) of 
government land, or buy or rent a " clearing " from some shift- 
less settler of an earlier day. Government land intended for 
sale was laid out in quarter sections of 160 acres, and after 
being advertised for a certain time was offered for sale at 
public auction. What was not sold could then be purchased 
at the land office of the district at two dollars an acre, one 
quarter to be paid down, and three fourths before the expira- 
tion of four years. The emigrant, having gathered eighty 
dollars, would go to some land office, " enter " a quarter sec- 
tion, pay the first installment, and make his way in the two- 
horse wagon containing his family and his worldly goods to 
the spot where was to be his future home. Every foot of it 
in all probability would be covered with bushes and trees. 

305. The Log Cabin. — In that case the settler would cut 
down a few saplings, make a "half -faced camp," and begin his 
clearing. The "half -faced camp" was a shed. Three sides 
were of logs laid one on another horizontally. The roof was 
of saplings covered with branches or bark. The fourth side 
was open, and when it rained was closed by hanging up deer- 
skin curtains. In this camp the newcomer and his family 
would live while he grubbed up the bushes and cut down treerf 
enough to make a log cahin. If he were a thrifty, painstaking 
man, he would smooth each log on four sides with his ax, and 
notch it half through at each end so that when they were 
placed one on another the faces would nearly touch. Sap- 
lings would make the rafters, and on them would be fastened 
planks laid clapboard fashion, or possibly split shingles. 

An opening was of course left for a door, although many a 
cabin was built without a window, and when the door was shut 
received no light save that which came down the chimney, 
which was always on the outside of the house. To form it, an 
opening eight feet long and six feet high was left at one end 
of the house, and around this a sort of bay window was built 
of logs and lined with stones on the inside. Above the top of 



THE RISING WEST 



271 



the opening the chimney contracted and was made of branches 
smeared both inside and out with clay. Generally the chim- 
ney went to the peak of the roof ; but it was by no means 
unusual for it to stop about halfway up the end of the cabin. 

If the settler was too poor to buy glass, or if glass could 
not be had, the window frame was covered with greased paper, 
which let in the light but could not be seen through. The 
door was of plank with leather hinges, or with iron hinges 




Log cabin i 

made from an old Avagon tire by the nearest blacksmith or by 
the settler himself. There was no knob, no lock, no bolt. 
In place of them there was a wooden latch on the inside, 
which could be lifted by a person on the outside of the door 
by a leather strip which came through a hole in the door 
and hung down. When this latchstring was out, anybody 
could pull it, lift the latch, and come in. When it was drawn 
inside, nobody could come in without knocking. The floor 
was made of " puncheons," or planks split and hewn with an 

1 The birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, restored (reproduced, together 
with the first picture on the next page, from Tarbell's Early Life of Abra- 
ham Lincoln,, by permission of the publishers, S. S. McClure, Limited). 



272 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 



ax from the trunk of a tree, 
and laid with the round side 
down. The furniture the 
settler brought with him, or 
made on the spot. 

The household utensils 
were of the simplest kind. 
Brooms and brushes were 
made of corn husks. Corn 
was shelled by hand and was 
then either carried in a bag 
slung over a horse's back to 
the nearest mill, perhaps 
fifteen miles away, or was 
pounded in a wooden hom- 
iny mortar with a 
wooden pestle, or 
ground in a hand 
mill. Chickens 
and game were 

roasted by hanging them with % leather strings 

before the open fire. Cooking % stoves were 

unknown, and all cooking was m done in a 

"Dutch oven," on the hearth, 

or in a clay " out oven " built, 

as its name implies, out of 

doors. 

306. Clearing and 

Planting. — The land 

about the cabin was 

cleared by grubbing the 

bushes and cutting down 

trees under a foot in 

diameter and burning 

them. Big trees were "^iiHP^ Kitchen utensils ^ 

1 From originals in the National Museum, Washington. 





THE RISING WEST 



273 



"deadened," or killed, by cutting a "girdle" around them two 
or three feet above the ground, deep enough to destroy the sap 
vessels and so prevent the growth of leaves.^ 

In the ground thus laid open to the sun were planted corn, 
potatoes, or wheat, which, when harvested, was threshed with 
a flail and fanned and cleaned with a sheet. At first the 
crop would be scarcely sufficient for home use. But, as 
time passed, there would be some to spare, and this would be 
wagoned to some river town and sold or exchanged for " store 
goods." 

If the settler chose his farm wisely, others would soon settle 
near by, and when a cluster of clearings had been made, some 
enterprising speculator would appear, take up a quarter sec- 
tion, cut it into town lots, and call the place after himself, as 
Piketown, or Leesburg, or Gentryville. A storekeeper with 
a case or two of goods would next appear, then a tavern would 
be erected, and possibly a blacksmith shop and a mill, and 
Piketown or Leesburg would be established. Hundreds of 
such ventures failed; but hundreds of others succeeded and 
are to-day prosperous villages. 




Mississippi produce boat 2 



307. The New States. — While the northern stream of popu- 
lation was thus traveling across New York, northern Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, and into Michigan, the middle stream was 
pushing down the Ohio. By 1820 it had greatly increased 
the population of southern Indiana and Illinois, and crossing 

1 For a delightful account of life in the West, read W. C. Howells's 
Recollections of Life in Ohio (edited by his son, William Dean Ho wells). 

2 From a model in the National Museum at Washington. 

McM. Hist. — 16 



274 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

the Mississippi was going up the Missouri River. In the 
South the destruction of the Indian power by Jackson in 
1813, and the opening of the Indian land to settlement, led to 
a movement of the southern stream of population across Ala- 
bama to Mobile. Now, what were some of the results of 
this movement of population into the Mississippi valley? In 
the first place, it caused the formation and admission into the 
Union of six states in five years. They were Indiana, 1816; 
Mississippi, 1817; Illinois, 1818; Alabama, 1819; Maine, 
1820; Missouri, 1821. 

308. Slave and Free States. — In the second place, it brought 
about a great struggle over slavery. You remember that 
when the thirteen colonies belonged to Great Britain slavery 
existed in all of them; that when they became independent 
states some began to abolish slavery; and that in time five 
became free states and eight remained slave states. Slavery 
was also gradually abolished in New York and New Jersey, 
so that of the original thirteen only six were now to be 
counted as slave states. You remember again that when 
the Continental Congress passed the Ordinance of 1787 for 
the government of the territory lying between the Ohio 
River and the Great Lakes, Pennsylvania and the Missis- 
sippi River, it ordained that in the Northwest Territory 
there should be no slavery. In consequence of this, Ohio, 
Indiana, and Illinois were admitted into the Union as free 
states, as Vermont had been. Kentucky was originally part of 
Virginia, and when it was admitted, came in as a slave state. 
Tennessee once belonged to North Carolina, and hence was also 
slave soil ; and when it was given to the United States, the con- 
dition was imposed by North Carolina that it should remain 
so. Tennessee, therefore, entered the Union (in 1796) as a 
slave state. Much of what is now Alabama and Mississippi 
was once owned by Georgia, and when she ceded it in 1802, 
she did so with the express condition that it should remain 
slave soil ; as a result of this, Alabama and Mississippi 
were slave states. Louisiana was part of the Louisiana 



THE RISING WEST 275 

Purchase, and was admitted (1812) as a slave state because 
it contained a great many slaves at the time of the purchase. 

Thus in 1820 there were twenty-two states in the Union, of 
which eleven were slave, and eleven free. Notice now two 
things : 1. That the dividing line between the slave and the 
free states was the south and west boundary of Pennsylvania 
from the Delaware to the Ohio, and the Ohio River ; 2. That 
all the states in the Union except part of Louisiana lay east of 
the Mississippi River. As to what should be the character 
of our country west of that river, nothing had as yet been said, 
because as yet no state lying wholly in that region had asked 
admittance to the Union. 

309. Shall there be Slave States West of the Mississippi 
River ? — But when the people rushed westward after the 
war, great numbers crossed the Mississippi and settled on the 
Missouri River, and as they were now very numerous they 
petitioned Congress in 1818 for leave to make the state of 
Missouri and to be admitted into the Union. 

The petitioners did not say whether they would make a slave 
or a free state 5 but as the Missourians owned slaves, everybody 
knew that Missouri would be a slave state. To this the free 
states were opposed. If the tobacco-growing, cotton-raising, 
and sugar-making states wanted slaves, that was their affair; 
but slavery must not be extended into states beyond the 
Mississippi, because it was wrong. No man, it was said, had 
any right to buy and sell a human being, even if he was black. 

The Southern people were equally determined that slavery 
should cross the Mississippi. We cannot, said they, abolish 
slavery; because if our slaves were set free, they would not 
work, and as they are very ignorant, they would take our 
property and perhaps our lives. Neither can we stop the 
increase of negro slave population. We must, then, have 
some place to send our surplus slaves, or the present slave 
states will become a black America. 

310. The Missouri Compromise. — Each side was so deter- 
mined, and it was so clear that neither would yield, that a com- 



276 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OE OUR COUNTRY 

promise was suggested. The country east of the Mississippi, 
it was said, is partly slave, partly free soil. Why not divide 
the country west of the great river in the same way ? At 
first the North refused. But it so happened that just at this 
moment Maine, having secured the consent of Massachusetts, 
applied to Congress for admission into the Union as a free 
state. The South, which had control of the Senate, thereupon 
said to the North, which controlled the House of Eepresenta- 
tives. If you will not admit Missouri as a slave state, we will 
not admit Maine as a free state. This forced the compromise, 
and after a bitter and angry discussion it was agreed 

1. That Maine should come in as a free, and Missouri as a 

slave, state. 

2. That the Louisiana Purchase should be cut in two by the 

parallel of 36° 30', and that all north of the line except 
Missouri should be free soil.^ This parallel was there- 
after known as the " Missouri Compromise Line." 




1 The Compromise was violated in 1836, when the present northwest 
corner of Missouri was taken from the free territory and added to tliat 
state. See maps, pp. 299 and 348. 



THE RISING WEST 277 

The admission of Maine and Missouri raised the number of 
states to twenty-four.^ No more were admitted for sixteen 
years. When Missouri applied for admission as a state, 
Arkansas was (1819) organized as a territory. 

311. The Second Election of Monroe. — This bitter contest 
over the exclusion of slavery from the country west of the 
Mississippi shows how completely party lines had disappeared 
in 1820. In the course of that year, electors of a President 
were to be chosen in the twenty-four . states. That slavery 
would play an important part in the campaign, and that some 
candidate would be put in the field by the people opposed to 
the compromise, might have been expected. But there was no 
campaign, no contest, no formal nomination. The members 
of Congress held a caucus, but decided to nominate nobody. 
Every elector, it was well known, would be a Kepublican, and 
as such would vote for the reelection of Monroe and Tompkins. 
And this almost did take place. Every one of the 229 electors 
who voted was a Republican, and all save one in New Hamp- 
shire cast votes for Monroe. But this one man gave his vote 
to John Quincy Adams. He said he did not want Washington 
to be robbed of the glory of being the only President who had 
ever received the unanimous vote of the electors. 

March 4, 1821, came on Sunday. Monroe was therefore 
inaugurated on Monday, March 5. 

SUMMARY 

1. The dull times on the seaboard, the cheap land in the West, the love 

of adventure, and the desire to " do better" led, during 1814-1820, 
to a most astonishing emigration westward. 

2. The rush of population into the Mississippi valley caused the admis- 

sion of six states into the Union between 1816 and 1821. 

3. The question of the admission of Missouri brought up the subject of 

shutting slavery out of the country west of the Mississippi, which 
ended in a compromise and the establishment of the line 36° 30'. 

1 For the compromise read Woodburn's Historical Significance of 
the Missouri Compromise (in Beport American Historical Association, 
1893, pp. 251-297) ; McMaster's History of the People of the United 
States, Vol. IV., Chap. 39. 



278 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 









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CHAPTER XXII 

THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE 

312. Improvement in Means of Travel. — We have now con- 
sidered two of the results of the rush of population from the 




Bordentown, N.J.i 

seaboard to the Mississippi valley; namely, the admission of 
five new Western states into the Union, and the struggle over 
the extension of slavery, which resulted in the Missouri Com- 
promise. But there was a third result, — the actual construc- 
tion of highways of transportation connecting the East with the 
West. Along the seaboard, during the five years which fol- 
lowed the war, great improvements were made in the means of 

1 From an old engraving. Passengers from Philadelphia landed here 
from the steamboat and took stage for New Brunswick. 

279 



280 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

travel. The steamboat had come into general use, and, thanks 
to this and to good roads and bridges, people could travel 
from Philadelphia to New York between sunrise and sunset 
on a summer day, and from New York to Boston in forty- 
eight hours. The journey from Boston to Washington was 
now finished in four days and six hours, and from New York 
to Quebec in eight days. 

In the West there was much the same improvement. The 
Mississippi and Ohio swarmed with steamboats, which came 
up the river from New Orleans to St. Louis in twenty-five 




days and went down with the current in eight. Little, how- 
ever, had been done to connect the East with the West. Until 
the appearance of the steamboat in 1812, the merchants of 
Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, and a host of other towns 
in the interior bought the produce of the Western settlers, and 
floating it down the Ohio and the Mississippi sold it at New 
Orleans for cash, and with the money purchased goods at Bal- 
timore, Philadelphia, and New York, and carried them over the 
mountains to the West. Some went in sailing vessels up the 
Hudson from New York to Albany, were wagoned to the Falls 
of the Mohawk, and then loaded in "Schenectady boats," 



HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE 



281 




Boats on the Mohawk^ 

which were pushed up the Mohawk by poles to Utica, and 
then by canal and river to Oswego, on Lake Ontario. From 
Oswego they went in sloops to Lewiston on the Niagara Kiver, 
whence they were carried in ox wagons to Buffalo, and then 
in sailing vessels to Westfield, and by Chautauqua Lake and 
the Allegheny River to Pittsburg. Goods from Philadelphia 
and Baltimore were hauled in great Conestoga wagons drawn 
by four and six horses across the mountains to Pittsburg. The 




THOMAS HARPER, 

AGEKT FOR 

INLAND TRANSPORTATION, 

T% ECEIVIS R hii Store, No. 467, Market, above Twelfth ttttt\.,MERCHAJ^DIXE intended fof 
*•*• Pinsburg, and any of the town* on the main roads leading thereto. And for all the pnndpal 
towns in the Somtkern, Western or Eastern States, which are forwarded with the utmost care, and on the 
most re»sonab)e iernnr. The convenience of ao establishment where single packages or larger parcels 
can be dispatched without delay, has been loDg wanud io tbii city. The obvioui utility of h therefore 
requires no comment. 

ourch 14 C03ii 

From the Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser 

1 Prom aa old print. 



282 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 



carrying trade alone in these ways was immense. More than 
12,000 wagons came to Pittsburg in a year, bringing goods 
on which the freight was $1,500,000. 

With the appearance of the steamboat on the Mississippi and 
Ohio, this trade was threatened; for the people of the Western 
States could now float their pork, flour, and lumber to New 
Orleans as before, and bring back from that city by steamboat 
the hardware, pottery, dry goods, cotton, sugar, coffee, tea, 
which till then they had been forced to buy in the East.^ 

This new way of trading was so much cheaper than the old, 
that it was clear to the people of the Eastern States that unless 
they opened up a still cheaper route to the West, their West- 
ern trade was gone. 




The Erie Canal 

313. The Erie CanaL — In 1817 the people of New York 
determined to provide such a route, and in that year they began 
to cut a canal across the state from the Hudson at Albany to 
Lake Erie at Buffalo. To us, with our steam shovels and 
drills, our great derricks, our dynamite, it would be a small 
matter to dig a ditch 4 feet deep, 40 feet wide, and 363 miles 
long. But on July 4, 1817, when Governor De Witt Clinton 
turned the first sod, and so began the work, it was considered 
a great undertaking, for the men of those days had only picks, 
shovels, wheelbarrows, and gunpowder to do it with. 

1 McMaster's History of the People of the United States, Vol. IV., pp. 
397-410, 419-421. 



HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE 283 

Opposition to the canal was strong. Some declared that it 
would swallow up millions of dollars and yield no return, and 
nicknamed it "Clinton's Big Ditch." But Clinton was not 
the kind of man that is afraid of ridicule. He and his 
friends went right on with the work, and after eight years 
spent in cutting down forests, in blasting rocks, in building 
embankments to carry the canal across swamps, and high aque- 
ducts to carry it over the rivers, and locks of solid masonry 
to enable the boats to go up and down the sides of hills, the 
canal was finished.^ 

Then, one day in the autumn of 1825, a fleet of boats set 
off from Buffalo, passed through the canal to Albany, where 




Model of a canal packet boat 

Governor De Witt Clinton boarded one of them, and went 
down the Hudson to New York. A keg of water from Lake 
Erie was brought along, and this, when the fleet reached New 
York Harbor, Clinton poured with great ceremony into the 
bay, to commemorate, as he said, " the navigable communica- 
tion opened between our Mediterranean seas [the Great Lakes] 
and the Atlantic Ocean." 

314. Effect of the Erie Canal. — The building of the canal 
changed the business conditions of about half of our country. 
Before the canal was finished, goods, wares, merchandise, 
going west from New York, were carried from Albany to 
Buffalo at a cost of ^120 a ton. After the canal was opened, 
it cost but $14 a ton to carry freight from Albany to Buffalo. 
This was most important. In the first place, it enabled the 
people in New York, in Ohio, in Indiana, in Illinois, and all 
over the West, to buy plows and hoes and axes and clothing 

■1 McMaster's History, Vol. IV. , pp. 415-418. 



284 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

and food and medicine for a much lower price than they 
had formerly paid for such things. Life in the West became 
more comfortable and easy than ever before. 

In the next place, the Eastern merchant could greatly extend 
his business. How far west he could send his goods depended 
on the expense of carrying them. When the cost was high, 
they could go but a little way without becoming so expensive 
that only a few people could buy them. After 1825, when the 
Erie Canal made transportation cheap, goods from New York 
city could be sold in Michigan and Missouri at a much lower 
price than they had before been sold in Pittsburg or Buffalo. 

315. New York City the Metropolis. — The New York mer- 
chant, in other words, now had the whole West for his market. 
That city, which till 1820 had been second in population, and 
third in commerce, rushed ahead and became the first in 
population, commerce, and business. 

The same was true of New York state. As the canal grew 
nearer and nearer completion, the people from other states 
came in and settled in the towns and villages along the route, 
bought farms, and so improved the country that the value of 
the land along the canal increased $100,000,000. 

A rage for canals now spread over the country. Many were 
talked of, but never started. Many were started, but never 
finished. Such as had been begun were hurried to comple- 
tion. Before 1830 there were 1343 miles of canal open to use 
in the United States. 

316. The Pennsylvania Highway to the "West. — In Pennsyl- 
vania the opening of the Erie Canal caused great excitement. 
And well it might; for freight could now be sent by sailing 
vessels from Philadelphia to Albany, and then by canal to 
Buffalo, and on by the Lake Erie and Chautauqua route to 
Pittsburg, for one third what it cost to go overland. It seemed 
as if New York by one stroke had taken away the Western 
commerce of Philadelphia, and ruined the prosperity of such 
inland towns of Pennsylvania as lay along the highway to the 
West. The demand for roads and canals at state expense was 



HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMEKCE 285 

now listened to, and in 182G ground was broken at Harrisburg 
for a system of canals to join Philadelphia and Pittsburg. 
But in 1832 the horse-power railroad came into use, and when 
finished, the system was part railroad and part canal. 

317. The Baltimore Route to the West. — This energy on the 
part of Pennsylvania alarmed the people of Baltimore. Unless 
their city was to yield its Western trade to Philadelphia they 
too must have a speedy and cheap route to the West. In 1827, 
therefore, a great public meeting was held at Baltimore to con- 
sider the wisdom of building a railroad from Baltimore to some 
point on the Ohio Eiver. The meeting decided that it must be 
done, and on July 4, 1828, the work of construction was begun. 
In 1830 the road was opened as far as Ellicotts Mills, a dis- 
tance of fifteen miles. The cars were drawn by horses. 

The early railroads, as the word implies, were roads made 
of w^ooden rails, or railed roads, over which heavy loads were 
drawn by horses. The very first were private affairs, and not 
intended for carrying passengers.^ 

318. Public Railroads. — In 1825 John Stevens, who for ten 
years past had been advocating steam railroads, built a circular 
road at Hoboken to demonstrate the possibility of using such 
means of locomotion. In 1823 Pennsylvania chartered a com- 
pany to build a railroad from Philadelphia to the Susquehanna. 
But it was not till 1827, when the East was earnestly seeking 
for a rapid and cheap means of transportation to the West, 
that railroads of great length and for public use were under- 
taken. In that year the people of Massachusetts were so 
excited over the opening of the Erie Canal that the legislature 

1 The first was used in 1807 at Boston to carry earth from a hilltop to 
a street that was being graded. The second was built near riiiladelphia 
in 1810, and ran from a stone quarry to a dock. It was in use twenty- 
eight years. The third was built in 1826, and extended from the granite 
quarries at Quincy, Mass., to the Neponset River, a distance of three 
miles. The fourth was from the coal mines of Mauchchunk, Pa., to 
the Lehigh River, nine miles. The fifth was constructed in 1828 by the 
Delaware and Hudson Canal Company to carry coal from the mines to 
the canal. 



286 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

appointed a commission and an engineer to select a line for a 
railroad to join Boston and Albany. 

At this time there was no such thing as a steam locomotive 
in use in the United States. The first ever used here for 
practical purposes was built in England and brought to New 
York city in 1829, and in August of that year made a trial trip 
on the rails of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. 
The experiment was a failure ; and for several years horses 
were the only motive power in use on the railroads. In 1830, 
however, the South Carolina Kailroad having finished six miles 
of its road, had a locomotive built in New York city, and in 
January, 1831, placed it on the tracks at Charleston. Another 
followed in February, and the era of locomotive railroading in 
our country began. 

319. The Portage Railroad. — As yet the locomotive was a 
rude machine. It could not go faster than fifteen miles an 
hour, nor climb a steep hill. Where such an obstacle was met 
with, either the road went around it, or the locomotive 
was taken off and the cars were let down or pulled up the 
hill on an inclined plane by means of a rope and stationary 
engine.^ When Pennsylvania began her railroad over the 
Alleghany Mountains, therefore, she used the inclined-plane 
system on a great scale, so that in its time the Portage Rail- 
road, as it was called, was the most remarkable piece of rail- 
roading in the world. 

The Pennsylvania line to the West consisted of a horse 
railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia on the Susquehanna 
River ; of a canal out the Juniata valley to Hollidaysburg on 
the eastern slope of the Alleghany Mountains, where the 
Portage Railroad began, and the cars were raised to the sum- 
mit of the mountains by a series of inclined planes and levels, 
and then by the same means let down the western slope to 

1 Such an inclined plane existed at Albany, where passengers were 
pulled up to the top of the hill. Another was at Belmont on the Schuyl- 
kill River in Philadelphia, and another on the Paterson and Hudson 
road near Paterson. 



HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE 



287 



Johnstown; and then of another canal from Johnstown to 
Pittsburg. 

As originally planned, the state was to build the railroad 
and canal, just as it built turnpikes. No cars, no motive power 
of any sort, except at the inclined planes, were to be supplied. 
Anybody could use it who paid two cents a mile for each 
passenger, and $4.92 for each car sent over the rails. At first, 




Inclined plane at Belmont in 1835 



therefore, firms and corporations engaged in the transportation 
business owned their own cars, their own horses, employed 
their own drivers, and charged such rates as the state tolls 
and sharp competition would allow. The result was dire con- 
fusion. The road was a single-track affair, with turnouts to 
enable cars coming in opposite directions to pass each other. 
But the drivers were an unruly set, paid no attention to turn- 
outs, and would meet face to face on the track, just as if no 
turnouts existed. A fight or a block was sure to follow, and 



288 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

somebody was forced to go back. To avoid this, the road was 
double-tracked in 1834, when, for the first time, two loco- 
motives dragging long trains of cars ran over the line from 
Lancaster to Philadelphia. As the engine went faster than 
the horses, it soon became apparent that both could not use 
the road at the same time ; and after 1836 steam became the 
sole motive power, and the locomotive was furnished by the 
state, which now charged for hauling the cars.^ 

The puffing little locomotive bore little resemblance to its 
beautiful and powerful successors. No cab sheltered the engi- 
neer, no brake checked the speed, wood was the only fuel, and 
the tall smokestack belched forth smoke and red-hot cinders. 




The first railroad train in New Jersey (1831) 

But this was nothing to what happened when the train came to 
a bridge. Such structures were then protected by roofing them 
and boarding the sides almost to the eaves. But the roof was 
always too low to allow the smokestack to go under. The 
stack, therefore, was jointed, and when passing through a 
bridge the upper half was droi^ped down and the whole train 
in consequence was enveloped in a cloud of smoke and burning 
cinders, while the passengers covered their eyes, mouths, and 
noses. 

320. Railroads in 1835. — In 1835 there were twenty-two rail- 
roads in operation in the United States. Two were west of 
the Alleghanies, and not one was 140 miles long. For a while 
the cars ran on " strap rails " made of wooden beams or stringers 
laid on stone blocks and protected on the top surface, where the 

1 On the early railroads see Brown's History of the. First Locomotives 
in America. 



HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE 289 

car wheel rested, by long strips or straps of iron spiked on. 
The spikes would often work loose, and, as the car passed 
over, the strap would curl up and come through the bottom of 
the car, making what was called a snake head. It was some 
time before the all-iron rail came into use, and even then it 
was a small affair compared with the huge rails that are used 
at present. 

321. Mechanical Inventions. — The introduction of the steam- 
boat and the railroad, the great development of manufactures, 
the growth of the West, and the immense opportunity for 
doing business which these conditions offered, led to all sorts 
of demands for labor-saving and time-saving machinery. 
Another very marked characteristic of the period 1825-1840, 
therefore, is the display of the inventive genius of the people. 
Articles which a few years before were made by hand now 
began to be made by machinery. 

Before 1825 every farmer in the country threshed his grain 
with a flail, or by driving cattle over it, or by means of a 
large wooden roller covered with pegs. After 1825 these 
rude devices began to be supplanted by the threshing ma- 
chine. Till 1826 no axes, hatchets, chisels, planes, or other 
edge tools were made in this country. In 1826 their manu- 
facture was begun, and in the following year there was 
opened the first hardware store for the sale of American- 
made hardware. 

The use of anthracite coal had become so general that the 
wood stove was beginning to be displaced by the hard-coal 
stove, and in 1827 fire bricks were first made in the United 
States. It was at about this time that paper was first made 
of hay and straw ; that boards were first planed by machine ; 
that bricks were first made by machinery; that penknives 
and pocketknives were first manufactured in America; that 
Fairbanks invented the platform weighing scales ; that chloro- 
form was discovered ; that Morse invented the recording tele- 
graph ; that a man in New York city, named Hunt, made and 
sold the first lock-stitch sewing machine ever seen in the 



290 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

world; that pens and horseshoes were made by machine; that 
the reaping machine was given its first public trial (in Ohio) ; 
and that Colt invented the revolver. 

322. Condition of the Cities. — Yet another characteristic of 
the period was the great change which came over the cities and 
towns. The development of canal and railroad transportation 
had thrown many of the old highways into disuse, had made 




New York in 1830 (St. Paurs Chapel, on Broadway) 



old towns and villages decline in population, and had caused 
new towns to spring up and flourish. Everybody now wanted 
to live near a railroad or a canal. The rapid increase in manu- 
factures had led to the occupation of the fine water-power sites, 
and to the creation of many such manufacturing towns as 
Lowell (in Massachusetts) and Cohoes (in New York). The 
rise of so many new kinds of business, of so many corpora- 
tions, mills, and factories, caused a rush of people to the cities, 
which now began to grow rapidly in size. 



HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE 291 

This made a change in city government necessary. The 
constable and the watchman with liis rattle had to give place 
to tlie modern policeman. The old dingy oil lamps, lighted 
only when the moon did not shine, gave place to gas. The 
cities were now so full of clerks, workingmen, mechanics, and 
other people who had to live far away from the places where 
they were employed, that a cheap means of transportation 
about the streets became necessary. Accordingly, in 1830, an 
omnibus line was started in New York.^ It succeeded so 
well that in 1832 the first street horse-car line in America 
was operated in New York city. 

323. The Owenite Communities. — The efforts thus made 
everywhere and in every way to increase the comforts and 
conveniences of mankind turned the years 1820-1840 into 
a period of reform. Anything new was eagerly taken up. 
When, therefore, a Welshman named Kobert Owen came over 
to this country, and introduced what he considered a social 
reform, numbers of people in the West became his followers. 
Owen believed that most of the hardships of life came from 
the fact that some men secured more property and made more 
money than others. He believed that people should live 
together in communities in which the farms, the houses, the 
cattle, the products of the soil, should be owned not by 
individual men, but by the whole community. He held 
that there should be absolute social equality, and that no 
matter what sort of work a man did, whether skilled or un- 
skilled, it should be considered just as valuable as the work 
of any other man. 

All this was very alluring, and in a little while Owenite 
communities were started in Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Penn- 
sylvania, and New York, only to end in failure.^ 

1 Many did not know what the word "Omnibus" painted along the 
top of the stages meant. Some thought it was the name of the man who 
owned them. It is, of course, a Latin word, and means "for all"; 
that is, the stages were public conveyances for tlie use of all. 

2 Noyes's Histonj of Ameincan Socialism. 

McM. Hist. — 17 



292 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

324. The Mormons. — But there was a social movement started 
at this time which still exists. In 1827, at Palmyra, in New 
York, a young man named Joseph Smith announced that he 
had received a new bible from an angel of the Lord. It was 
written, he said, on golden plates, which he claimed to have 
read by the aid of two wonderful stones ; and in 1830 he gave 
to the world The Book of Mormon. 

After the book appeared, Smith and a few others organized 
a church. Many at once began to believe in the new religion. 
But the West seemed so much better a field that in 1831 
Smith and his followers started for Ohio, and at Kirtland 
established a Mormon community. There the Mormons lived 
for several years, and then went to Missouri, whence they 
were expelled, partly because they were an antislavery people. 
In 1840 they settled on the banks of the Mississippi in 
Illinois and built the town of Nauvoo. At Nauvoo they 
remained till 1846, when, having adopted polygamy, they 
were driven off by the people of Illinois, and, led by Brigham 
Young, marched to Council Bluffs, in Iowa. There they 
stopped to look about them for a safe place of abode, and 
finally, in 1847, left Council Bluffs for Great Salt Lake, then 
in the dominions of Mexico.^ 

SUMMARY 

1. The rise of the new states in the West, and the appearance of the 

steamboat on the Mississippi, were the causes of a great revival of 
public interest in internal improvements. 

2. The first to build a great western highway was New York state, which, 

between 1817 and 1825, built the Erie Canal. 

3. This cut down the cost of moving freight to the West, led to settle- 

ment along the banks of the canal, and made New York city the 
metropolis of the country. 

4. It was during this period, 1815-1830, that many inventions, dis- 

coveries, and improvements were made in the arts and sciences. 

5. The railroad was introduced, and the steam locomotive successfully 

used. 

6. The cities grew, and in New York the omnibus and the street car began 

to be used. 

1 Kennedy's Early Days of Mormonism. 



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CHAPTER XXIII 

POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 

325. New Political Institutions. — Of the political leaders of 
Washington's time few were left in 1825. The men who then 
conducted affairs had almost all been born since the Revolu- 
tion, or were children at the time.^ The same is true of the 
mass of the people. They too had been born since the Revo- 
lution, and, growing up under different conditions, held ideas 
very different from the men who went before them. They 
were more democratic and much less aristocratic, more hu- 
mane, more practical. They abolished the old and cruel pun- 
ishments, such as branding the cheeks and foreheads of crimi- 
nals with letters, cutting off their ears, putting them in the 
pillory and the stocks ; they partly abolished imprisonment 
for debt ; they established free schools, reformatories, asylums, 
and penitentiaries. They amended their state constitutions 
or made new ones, and extended the right to vote, and intro- 
duced new political institutions, some of which were of doubt- 
ful value, but are still used. 

326. Political Proscription ; the Gerrymander. — One of these 
was the custom of turning men out of public office because 
they did not belong to the party in power, or did not " work " 
for the election of the successful candidate. As early as 179? 
this vicious practice was in use in Pennsylvania, and a few 
years later was introduced in ISTew York by T>e Witt Clinton. 
Jefferson resorted to it when he became President, but it was 

1 John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson were born in 1767 ; Henry 
Clay, in 1777 ; John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Martin Van Buren, 
and Thomas H. Benton, in 1782. 

294 



POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 



295 



not till 1820 that it was firmly established by Congress. In 
that year William H. Crawford, who was Secretary of the 
Treasury and a presidential candidate, secured the passage of 
a "tenure of oftice" act, limiting the term of collectors of reve- 
nue, and a host of other officials, to four years, and thus made 
the appointments to these places rewards for political service. 

Another institution dating from this time is the gerry- 
mander. In 1812, when Elbridge Gerry was the Republican 
governor of Massachusetts, his party, finding that at the next 
election they would lose the governorship and the House of 
Representatives, decided to hold the Senate by marking out 
new senatorial districts. In doing this they drew the lines 
in such wise that districts where there were large Federalist 
majorities were cut in two, and the parts annexed to other 
districts, where there were yet larger Republican majorities. 

The story is told that a map of the Essex senatorial district 
was hanging on the office wall of the editor of the Columbian 
^ Centinel, when a famous 



artist named Stuart en- 
tered. Struck by the pecul- 
iar outline of the towns 
forming the district, he 
added a head, wings, and claws with 
his pencil, and turning to the editor, 
said : " There, that will do for a sala- 
mander." "Better say a Gerryman- 
der," returned the editor, alluding to 
Elbridge Gerry, the Republican gov- 
ernor who had signed the districting 
act. However this may be, it is certain 
that the name " gerrymander " was 
applied to the odious law in the col- 
umns of the Centinel, that it came rapidly into use, and has 
remained in our political nomenclature ever since. Indeed, a 
huge cut of the monster was prepared, and the next year was 
scattered as a broadside over the commonwealth, and so aroused 




^96 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OE OUR COUNTRY 

the people that in the spring of 1813, despite the gerry- 
mander, the Federalists recovered control of the Senate, and 
repealed the law. But the example was set, and was quickly 
imitated in New Jersey, New York, and Maryland. This 
established the institution, and it has been used over and over 
again to this day. 

327. The Third-term Tradition. — Another political custom 
which had grown to have the force of law was that of never 
electing a President to three terms. There is nothing in the 
Constitution to prevent a President serving any number of 
terms; but, as we have seen, when Washington finished his 
second he declined another, and when Jefferson (in 1807— 
1808) was asked by the legislatures of several states to accept 
a third term, he declined, and very seriously advised the 
people never to elect any man President more than twice. ^ 
The example so set was followed by Madison and Monroe and 
had thus by 1824 become an established usage. 

328. New Political Issues. — The most important change of 
all was the rise of new political issues. We have seen how 
the financial questions which divided the people in 1790-1792 
and gave rise to the Federalist and Eepublican parties, were 
replaced during the wars between England and France by the 
question, ^^ Shall the United States be neutral ? " It was not 
until the end of our second war with Great Britain that we 
were again free to attend to our home affairs. 

During the long embargo and the war, manufactures had 
arisen, and one question now became, "Shall home manufac- 
tures be encouraged?" With the rapid settlement of the 
Mississippi valley and the demand for roads, canals, and 
river improvements by which trade might be carried on with 
the West, there arose a second political question : " Shall these 
internal improvements be made at government expense ? " 

Now the people of the different sections of the country were 
not of one mind on these questions. The Middle States and 
Kentucky and some parts of New England wanted manufac- 
1 McMaster's With the Fathers, pp. 54-70. 



POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 297 

tures encouraged. In the West and the Middle States people 
were in favor of internal improvements at the cost of the 
o-overnment. In the South Atlantic States, where tobacco and 
cotton and rice were raised and shipped (especially the cotton) 
to England, people cared nothing for manufactures, nothing 
for internal improvements. 

329, Presidential Candidates in 1824. — This diversity of 
opinion on questions of vital importance had much to do with 
the breaking up of the Eepublican party into sectional fac- 
tions after 1820. The ambition of leaders in these sections 
helped on the disruption, so that between 1821 and 1824 
four men, John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, Henry 
Clay of Kentucky, Andrew Jackson of Ten- 
nessee, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, 
were nominated for President by state legis- 
latures or state nominating conventions, by 
mass meeting or by gatherings of men who 
had assembled for other purposes but seized 
the occasion to indorse or propose a candi- 
date. A fifth, William H. Crawford, was 
nominated by the congressional caucus, 
which then acted for the last time in our j^j^^ Quincy Adams 
history. 

Before election day this list was reduced to four : Calhoun 
had become the candidate of all factions for the vice presi- 
dency. 

330. Adams elected by the House of Representatives. — The 
Constitution provides that no man is chosen President by the 
electors who does not receive a majority of their votes. In 
1824 Jackson received ninety-nine ; Adams, eighty-four ; 
Crawford, forty-one ; and Clay, thirty-seven. There was, 
therefore, no election, and it became the duty of the House 
of Representatives to make a choice. But according to the 
Constitution only the three highest could come before the 
House. This left out Clay, who was Speaker and who had 
great influence. His friends would not vote for Jackson on 





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300 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

any account, nor for Crawford, the caucus candidate. Adams 
they liked, because he believed in internal improvements at 
government expense and a protective tariff. Adams accord- 
ingly was elected President. Calhoun had been elected Vice 
President by the electoral college. 

The election of John Quincy Adams was a matter of intense 
disappointment to the friends of Jackson. In the heat of 
party passion and the bitterness of their disappointment they 
declared that it was the result of a bargain between Adams 
and Clay. Clay, they said, was to induce his friends in the 
House of Eepresentatives to vote for Adams, in return for 
which Adams was to make Clay Secretary of State. No such 
bargain was ever made. But when Adams did appoint Clay 
Secretary of State, Jackson and his followers were fully con- 
vinced of the contrary.^ 

As a consequence, the legislature of Tennessee at once re- 
nominated Jackson for the presidency, and he became the 
people's candidate and drew about him not only the men who 
voted for him in 1824, but those also who had voted for 
Crawford, who was paralyzed and no longer a candidate. 
They called themselves "Jackson men," or Democratic Re- 
publicans. 

Adams, it was known, would be nominated to succeed him- 
self, and about him gathered all who wanted a tariff for protec- 
tion, roads and canals at national expense, and a distribution 
among the states of the money obtained from the sale of 
public lands. These were the "Adams men," or National 
Republicans. 

331. Antimasons. — But there was a third party which arose 
in a very curious way and soon became powerful. In 1826, 
at Batavia in New York, a freemason named William Mor- 
gan announced his intention to publish a book revealing the 
secrets of masonry ; but about the time the book was to come 
out Morgan disappeared and was never seen again. This led 

1 Parton's Life of Jackson, Chap. 10 ; Schurz's Life of Clay, Vol. I., 
pp. 203-258. 



POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 301 

to the belief that the masons had killed him, and stirred up 
great excitement all over the twelve western counties of New 
York. The "antimasons" said that a man who was a free- 
mason considered his duty to his order superior to his duty to 
his country ; and a determined effort was made to prevent the 
election of any freemason to office. 

At first the " antimasonic " movement was confined to western 
New York, but the moment it took a political turn it spread 
across northern Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, 
and Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and was led by some 
of the most distinguished men and aspiring politicians of the 
time.^ 

332. The Election of Jackson. — When the presidential elec- 
tion occurred in 1828, there were thus three parties, — the 
"Jackson men," the "Administration," and the Antimasonic. 
But politics had very little to do with the result. In the early 
days of the republic, the mass of men were ignorant and un- 
educated, and willingly submitted to be led by men of educa- 
tion and what was called breeding. From Washington down 
to John Quincy Adams, the presidents were from the aristo- 
cratic class. They were not men of the people. But in course 
of time a great change had come over the mass of Americans. 
Their prosperity, their energy in developing the country, had 
made them self-reliant, and impatient of all claims of supe- 
riority. One man was now no better than another, and the 
cry arose all over the country for a President who was "a 
man of the people." Jackson was just such a man, and it was 
because he was " a man of the people " that he was elected. 
Of 261 electoral votes he received 178, and Adams 83. 

333. The North and the South Two Different Peoples. — Be- 
fore entering on Jackson's administration, it is necessary to 
caLl attention to the effect produced on our country by the in- 
dustrial revolution discussed in Chaps. 19 and 22. In the first 
place, it produced two distinct and utterly different peoples : 
the one in the North and the other in the South. In the North, 

1 Stanwood's Presidential Elections^ Chap. 13. 



POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 303 

where there were no great plantations, no great farms, and where 
the labor was free, the marvelous inventions, discoveries, and 
improvements mentioned were eagerly seized on and used. 
There cities grew up, manufactures flourished, canals were 
dug, railroads were built, and industries of every sort estab- 
lished. Some towns, as Lynn, Lowell, Lawrence, Fall Kiver, 
Cohoes, Paterson, Newark, and Pittsburg, were almost en- 
tirely given up to mills and factories. No such towns existed 
in the South. In the South men lived on plantations, raised 
cotton, tobacco, and rice, owned slaves, built few large towns, 
cared nothing for internal improvements, and established no 
industries of any sort. 

This difference of occupation led of course to difference of 
interests and opinions, so that on three matters — the exten- 
sion of slavery, internal improvements, and tariff for protec- 
tion — the North and the South were opposed to each other. 
In the West and the Middle States these questions were all- 
important, and by a union of the two sections under the 
leadership of Clay a new tariff was passed in 1824, and in 
the course of the next four years $2,300,000 were voted for 
internal improvements. 

The Virginia legislature (1825) protested against internal 
improvements at government expense, and against the tariff. 
But the North demanded more, and in 1827 another tariff bill 
was prevented from passing only by the casting vote of Vice 
President Calhoun. And now the two sections joined issue. 
The South, in memorials, resolutions, and protests, declared a 
tariff for protection to be unconstitutional, partial, and oppress- 
ive. The wool growers and manufacturers of the North called 
a national convention of protectionists to meet at Harrisburg, 
and when Congress met, forced through the tariff of 1828. 
The South answered with anti-tariff meetings, addresses, reso- 
lutions, with boycotts on the tariff states, and with protests 
from the legislatures. Calhoun then came forward as the 
leader of the movement and put forth an argument, known as 
the South Carolina Exposition, in which he urged that a con- 



304 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

vention should meet in South Carolina and decide in what 
manner the tariff acts should "be declared null and void 
within the limits of the state." 

334. May a State nullify an Act of Congress ? — The right of 
a state to nullify an act of Congress thus became the question 
of the hour, and was again set forth yet more fully by Calhoun 
in 1831. That the South was deeply in earnest was apparent, 
and in 1832 Congress changed the tariff of 1828, and made it 
less objectionable. But it was against tariff for protection, 
not against any particular tariff, that South Carolina con- 
tended, and finding that the North would not give up its 
principles, she put her threat into execution. The legislature 
called a state convention, which declared that the tariffs of 
1828 and 1832 were null and void and without force in South 
Carolina, and forbade anybody to pay the duties laid by 
these laws after February 1, 1833.^ 

Jackson, who had just been reelected, was not terrified. He 
bade the collector at Charleston go on and collect the revenue 
duties, and use force if necessary, and he issued a long address 
to the Nullifiers. On the one hand, he urged them to yield. 
On the other, he told them that " the laws of the United States 
must be executed. . . . Those who told you that you might 
peacefully prevent their execution deceived you. . . . Their 
object is disunion, and disunion by armed force is treason." 

335. Webster's Great Reply to Calhoun. — Calhoun, who since 
1825 had been Vice President of the United States, now re- 
signed, and was at once made senator from South Carolina. 
When Congress met in December, 1832, the great question be- 
fore it was what to do with South Carolina. Jackson wanted 
a "Force Act," that is, an act giving him power to collect the 
tariff duties by force of arms. Hayne, who was now governor 

1 Houston's A Critical Study of Nullification in South Carolina; 
Parton's Jackson, Vol. III., Chaps. 32-34 ; Schurz's Life of Clay, 
Vol. II., Chap. 14 ; Von Hoist's Life of Calhoun, C^iap. 4 ; Lodge's Life 
of Webster, Chaps. 6, 7 ; Rhodes's History of the United States, Vol. I., 
pp. 40-50, 



POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 305 

of South Carolina, declared that if this was done, his state would 
leave the Union. 

A great debate occurred on the Force Act, in which Calhoun, 
speaking for the South, asserted the right of a state to nullify 
and secede from the Union, while Webster, speaking for the 
North, denied the right of nullification and secession, and up- 
held the Union and the Constitution.^ 

336. The Compromise of 1833 — Meantime, Henry Clay, see- 
ing how determined each side was, and fearing civil war might 
follow, came forward with a compromise. He proposed that 
the tariff of 1832 should be reduced gradually till July, 1842, 
when on all articles imported there should be a duty equal to 
twenty per cent of their value. This was passed, and the 
Compromise Tariff, as it is called, became a law in March, 
1833. A new convention in South Carolina then repealed the 
ordinance of nullification. 

337. War on the Bank of the United States. — While South 
Carolina was thus fighting internal improvements and the 
tariff, the whole Jackson party was fighting the Bank of the 
United States. You will remember that this institution was 
chartered by Congress in 1816; and its charter was to run 
till 1836. Among the rights given it was that of having 
branches in as many cities in the country as it pleased, and, 
exercising this right, it speedily established branches in the 
chief cities of the South and West. The South and West 
were already full of state banks, and, knowing that the busi- 
ness of these would be injured if the branches of the United 
States Bank were allowed to come among them, the people 
of that region resented the reestablishment of a national 
bank. Jackson, as a Western man, shared in this hatred, 
and when he became President was easily persuaded by his 
friends (who wished to force the Bank to take sides in 
politics) to attack it. The charter had still nearly eight 

1 Johnston's American Orations, Vol. I., pp. 196-212; Webster's 
Works, Vol. III., pp. 248-355, 448-505; Rhodes's History of the United 
States, Vol. I., pp. 50-52. 



306 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

years to run; nevertheless, in his first message to Congress 
(December, 1829) he denounced the Bank as unconstitutional, 
unnecessary, and as having failed to give the country a sound 
currency, and suggested that it should not be rechartered. 
Congress paid little attention to him. But he kept on, year 
after year, till, in 1832, the friends of the Bank made his 
attack a political issue.^ 

338. The First National Nominating Convention; the First 
Party Platform. — To do this was easy, because in 1832 it was 
well known that Jackson would again be a candidate for the 
presidency. Now the presidential contest of that year is 
remarkable for two reasons : 

1. Because each of the three parties held a national conven- 

tion for the nomination of candidates. 

2. Because a party platform was then used for the first time. 

The originators of the national convention were the Anti- 
masons. State conventions of delegates to nominate state 
officers, such as governors and congressmen and presidential 
electors, had long been in use. But never, till September, 
1831, had there been a convention of delegates from all parts 
of the country for the purpose of nominating the President 
and Vice President. In that year Antimasonic delegates from 
twenty-two states met at Baltimore and nominated William 
Wirt and Amos Ellmaker. 

The example thus set was quickly followed, for in Decem- 
ber, 1831, a convention of National Republicans nominated 
Henry Clay. In May, 1832, a national convention of Demo- 
crats nominated Martin Van Buren for Vice President; ^ and in 
that same month, a "national assembly of young men," or, as 

1 Roosevelt's Life of Benton, Chap. 6 ; Parton's Life of Jackson, 
Vol. III., Chaps. 29-31; Tyler's Memoir of Roger B. Taney, Vol. I., 
Chap. 3 ; Von Hoist's Constitutional History, Vol. II., pp. 31-52 ; 
Schurz's Clay, Vol. I., Chap. 13; American History Leaflets, No. 24. 

2 It was not necessary to nominate Jackson. That he should be re- 
elected was the wish of the great body of voters. The convention, 
therefore, merely nominated a Vice President. 



POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 307 

the Democrats called it, " Clay's Infant School," met at Wash- 
ington and framed the first party platform. They were friends 
of Clay, and in their platform they demanded protection to 
American industries, and internal improvements at govern- 
ment expense, and denounced Jackson for his many removals 
from office. They next issued an address to the people, in 
which they declared that if Jackson were reelected, the Bank 
would ''be abolished." ^ 

339. Jackson destroys the Bank. — The friends of the Bank 
meantime appealed to Congress for a new charter and found 
little difficulty in getting it. But when the bill went to 
Jackson for his signature, he vetoed it, and, as its friends 
had not enough votes to pass the bill over the veto, the Bank 
was not rechartered. 

The only hope left was to defeat Jackson at the polls. But 
this too was a failure, for he was reelected by greater majori- 
ties than he had received in 1828.^ 

340. Jackson withdraws the Government Money from the 
Bank. — This signal triumph was understood by Jackson to 
mean that the people approved of his treatment of the Bank. 
So he continued to hurt it all he could, and in 1833 ordered 
his Secretary of the Treasury to remove the money of the 
United States from the Bank and its branches. This the 
Secretary^ refused to do; whereupon Jackson removed him 
and put another/ who would, in his place. After 1833, 
therefore, the collectors of United States revenue ceased to 
deposit it in the Bank of the United States, and put it in state 
banks ("pet banks ") named by the Secretary of the Treasury. 
The money already on deposit was gradually drawn out, till 
none remained.^ 

1 For party platform see M'Kee's National Platforms of all Parties. 

2 Of the 288 electoral votes, Jackson received 219, and Clay 49. Wirt, 
the Antimason, secured 7. 

^ William J. Duane. * Roger B. Taney. 

^ Parton's Jackson, Vol. III., Chaps. 36-39 ; American History Leaflets, 
No. 24 ; Sumner's Jackson, Chaps. 13, 14 ; Von Hoist's Constitutional 
History, Yol. II., pp. 52-79- Roosevelt's Benton, Chap. 6. 



308 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

For this act the Senate, when it met in December, 1833, 
passed a vote of censure on Jackson and entered the censure 
on its journal. Jackson protested, and asked to have his pro- 
test entered, but the Senate refused. Whereupon Benton of 
Missouri declared that he would not rest till the censure was 
removed or " expunged " from the journal. At first this did 
not seem likely to occur. But Benton kept at it, and at last, 
in 1837, the Senate having become Democratic, he succeeded.^ 

341. Wildcat State Banks. — As soon as the reelection of 
Jackson made it certain that the charter of the Bank of the 
United States would not be renewed, the same thing happened 
in 1833 that had occurred in 1811. The legislature of every 
state was beset with applications for bank charters, and granted 
them. In 1832 there were but 288 state banks in the country. 
In 1836 there were 583. Some were established in order to 
get deposits of the government money. Others were started 
for the purpose of issuing paper money with which the bank 
officials might speculate. Others, of course, were founded 
with an honest purpose. But they all issued paper money, 
which the people borrowed on very poor security and used 
in speculation. 

342. The Period of Speculation. — Never before had the op- 
portunity for speculation been so great. The new way of do- 
ing business, the rise of corporations and manufactures, drew 
people into the cities, which grew in area and afforded a chance 
for investors to get rich by purchasing city lots and hold- 
ing them for a rise in price. Railroads and canals were being 
projected all over the country. Another favorite way of 
speculating, therefore, was to buy land along the lines of rail- 
roads building or to be built. Suddenly cotton rose a few 
cents a pound, and thousands of people began to speculate 
in slaves and cotton land. Others bought land in the West 
from the government, at f 1.25 an acre, and laid it out into 

1 When the resolution had passed, the Clerk of the Senate was ordered 
to bring in the journal, draw a thick black line around the censure, and 
write across it " Expunged by order of the Senate, January 16, 1837." 



POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 309 

town lots,^ which they sold for $10 and $20 apiece to people 
in the East. In short, everybody who could was borrowing 
paper money from the banks and speculating. 

Under these conditions, any cause which should force the 
banks to stop loaning money, or to call in that already loaned, 
would bring on a panic. And this is just what happened. 

343. The Specie Circular. — Speculation in government land 
was so general that the annual sales rose from $2,300,000 in 
1831, to $24,900,000 in 1836. ^ Finding that these great 
purchases were paid for not in gold and silver, but in state 
bank paper money, Jackson became alarmed. Many of the 
banks were of doubtful soundness, and if they failed, all 
their money which the government had taken for land would 
be lost. In 1836, therefore, Jackson issued his "Specie 
Circular," which commanded all officials authorized to sell 
government land to receive payment in nothing but gold 
or silver or land scrip. A great demand for specie and a 
removal of it from the banks in the East to those in the West 
followed, which of course hurt the Eastern banks, because it 
took away some of their money, and that kind of money 
which they were holding for the purpose of redeeming their 
paper. 

Another thing which hurt the banks, by forcing them to stop 
loaning and to call for a settlement of debts, was the distribu- 
tion of the surplus revenue among the states. 

344. The Surplus Revenue. — What caused this surplus 
revenue? Many things. 

1. The United States had no debt. The national debt, you 
remember, was created in 1790 by funding the foreign 
and Congress debt and assuming those of the states, and 
amounted to $75,000,000. When Jefferson was elected 
President in 1801, this debt had risen to $80,000,000; 
but during his administration it fell to $57,000,000. 

1 Sometimes ten such lots would be laid out on an acre. 

2 Shepard's Van Buren, Chap. 8 ; Sumner's Jackson, pp. 322-325. 



310 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

The war with England raised it to $127,000,000, after 
which it once more decreased year by year till 1835, 
when every dollar was paid off, and the United States 
was out of debt.^ 

2. The expenses of the government were not large. 

3. There was a heavy importation of foreign goods, which 

produced a great revenue under the tariff act. 

4. The immense speculation in government lands already 

described produced a large income to the government.^ 

In consequence of these causes, the government on June 1, 
1836, had in the banks f 41,500,000 more than it needed. 

What to do with this useless money sorely puzzled Con- 
gress. It could not reduce the tariff, because that was grad- 
ually being reduced under the compromise of 1833. Some 
wanted the money derived from the sale of land distributed. 
But at last it was decided to take all the surplus the govern- 
ment had on January 1, 1837, subtract $5,000,000 from it, and 
divide the rest by the number of senators and representatives 
in Congress, and give each state as many parts as it had sena- 
tors and representatives.^ 

On January 1, 1837, the surplus was $42,468,000, which, 
after subtracting the $5,000,000, left $37,468,000 to be distrib- 
uted. It was to be paid in four installments ; ^ but only three 
of them were ever paid, for, when October 1, 1837, came, the 
whole country was suffering from a panic.^ 

345. The Panic of 1837. — Now, when the banks in which 
the government surplus was kept were suddenly called on to 
give it up in order that it might be distributed among the 

1 As bonds, etc., to the value of $35,000 were never presented for 

payment, the United States appears to have always been in debt. This 

$35,000 probably represents evidences of indebtedness lost by the owners. 

. 2 The land sales were $4,800,000 in 1834, $14,757,000 in 1835, and 

$24,877,000 in 1836. 

3 One state, New York, was to receive $4,000,000, three states over 
$2,000,000, six over $1,000,000, and eight over $500,000. 

4 The days of payment were Jan. 1, April 1, July 1, and Oct. 1, 1837. 
s Bourne's History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837. 



POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 311 

states, (as they had loaned this surphis) they were all forced 
to call it in. More than that, they would make no new loans. 
This made credit hard to get. As a consequence, mills and 
factories shut down, all buying and selling stopped, and thou- 
sands of workmen were thrown out of employment. As every- 
body wanted money, it followed that houses, lands, property 
of every sort, was offered for sale at ridiculously low prices. 
But there were no buyers. In New York the distress was so 
great that bread riots occurred. The merchants, unable to pay 
their debts, began to fail, and to make matters worse the banks 
all over the country suspended specie payment; that is, refused 
to give gold and silver in exchange for their paper bills. Then 
the panic set in, and for a while the people, the states, and the 
government were bankrupt.^ 

346. Election of Martin Van Buren ; Eighth President. — 
In accordance with the well-established custom that no Presi- 
dent shall have more than two terms, Jackson 
would not accept a renomination in 1836. 
So the Democratic national convention nomi- 
nated Martin Van Buren and E,. M. Johnson. 
The Whigs, as the National Republicans 
called themselves after 1834, did not hold a 
national nominating convention, but agreed 
to support William Henry Harrison. Van 
Buren was elected, and inaugurated March 
4 1 8S7 '^ Martin Van Buren 

347. The New National Debt; the Independent Treasury.— 

But scarcely had he taken the oath of office when the panic 
swept over the country, and his whole term was one of financial 
distress or hard times. The suspension of specie payment 
and the failures of many banks and merchants left the govern- 
ment without money, and forced Van Buren to call an extra 
session of Congress in September, 1837. Before adjourning, 
Congress ordered the fourth or October installment of the dis- 
tributed revenue to be suspended. It has never been given to 
1 Shepard's Van Buren, Chap. 8. 2 n^id,^ Chap. 7. 

McM. Hist. — 18 




312 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 

the states. Congress also authorized the Secretary of the 
Treasury to issue $10,000,000 in treasury notes, and so laid 
the foundation for the second national debt, which one cause 
or another has continued ever since. 

The experience the government had thus twice passed 
through (1814 and 1837) led the people to believe it ought not 
to keep its money in state banks. But just where the money 
should be kept was a disputed party question. The Whigs 
insisted on a third National Bank like the old one Jackson 
had destroyed. Van Buren wanted what was called an " Inde- 
pendent Treasury," and after four attempts the act establishing 
it was passed in 1840. 

The law created four " receivers general " (one each at Boston, 
New York, Charleston, and St. Louis), to whom all money 
collected by the United States officials should be turned over, 
and directed that "rooms, vaults, and safes" should be pro- 
vided for the safe keeping of the money. ^ 

As might be expected, the people laid all the blame for the 
hard times on Van Buren and his party. The Democrats, they 
said, had destroyed the National Bank ; they had then removed 
the United States money, and given it to " pet " state banks ; 
they had then distributed the surplus, and by taking the sur- 
plus from the state banks had brought on the panic. Whether 
this was true or not, the people believed it, and were determined 
to " turn out little Van." 

The campaign of 1840 was the most novel, exciting, and 
memorable that had yet taken place. Three parties had can- 
didates in the field. The Antislavery party put forward James 
Gillespie Birney and Thomas Earle. The Democrats in their 
convention renominated Van Buren, but no Vice President. 
The Whigs nominated W. H. Harrison, and John Tyler of 
Virginia. The mention of the Antislavery party makes it 
necessary to account for its origin. 

348. The Antislavery Movement. — The appearance of the 
Antislavery or Liberty party marks the beginning in national 
1 Shepard's Van Buren, Chap. 9. 



POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 313 

affairs of an anti slavery movement which had long been going 
on in the states. When the Missouri Compromise was made 
in 1820, many people believed that the troublesome matter of 
slavery was settled. This was a mistake, and the compromise 
really made matters worse. In the first place, it encouraged 
the men in Illinois who favored slavery to attempt to make it a 
slave state by amending the state constitution, an attempt which 
failed in 1824 after a long struggle. In the second place, it 
aroused certain men who had been agitating for freeing the 
slaves to redoubled energy. Among these were Benjamin 
Lundy, James Gillespie Birney, and William Lloyd Garrison, 
who in 1831 established an abolition newspaper called the 
Liberator, which became very famous. In the third place, it 
led to the formation all over the North, and in many places 
in the South, of new abolition societies, and stirred up the 
old ones and made them more active.^ 

For a time these societies carried on their work, each inde- 
pendent of the others. But in 1833, a convention of delegates 
from them met at Philadelphia, and formed a national society 
called the American Antislavery Society.^ 

349. Antislavery Documents shut out of the Mails. — Thus 
organized, the society went to work at once and flooded the 
South with newspapers, pamphlets, pictures, and handbills, 
all intended to arouse a sentiment for instant abolition or 
emancipation of slaves. The South declared that these were 
inflammatory, insurrectionary, and likely to incite the slaves to 
revolt, and called on the North to suppress abolition societies 
and stop the spread of abolition papers. To do such a thing 
by legal means was impossible; so an attempt was made to 
do it by illegal means. In the Northern cities such as Phila- 
delphia, Utica, Boston, Haverhill, mobs broke up meetings of 

1 James G. Birney and his Times, Chap. 12. 

2 Its constitution declared (1) that each state has exclusive right to 
regulate slavery within it ; (2) that the society will endeavor to persuade 
Congress to stop the interstate slave trade, to abolish slavery in the terri- 
tories and in the District of Columbia, and to admit no more slave states 
into the Union, 



314 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OE OUR COUNTRY 

abolitionists, and dragged the leaders about the streets. In 
the South, the postmasters, as at Charleston, seized anti- 
slavery tracts and pamphlets going through the mails, and the 
people burned them. In New York city such matter was 
taken from the mails and destroyed by the postmaster. When 
these outrages were reported to Amos Kendall, the Postmaster- 
General, he approved of them ; and when Congress met, Jack- 
son asked for a law that would prohibit the circulation "in 
the Southern States, through the mails, of incendiary publica- 
tions intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection." From 
the legislatures of five Southern states came resolutions call- 
ing on the people of the North to suppress the abolitionists.^ 
Congress and the legislatures of New York and Rhode Island 
responded ; but the bills introduced did not pass.^ 

This attempt having failed, the mobs again took up the 
work, and began to smash and destroy the presses of anti- 
slavery newspapers. One paper, twice treated in this manner 
in 1836, was the Philanthropist, published at Cincinnati by 
James Gillespie Birney. Another was the Observer, published 
at Alton by Elijah Love joy, who was murdered in defending 
his property.^ The Pennsylvania Freeman was a third. 

350. The Gag Rule. — Not content with attacking the liberty 
of the press, the proslavery men attacked the right of petition. 
The Constitution provides that " Congress shall make no law 
. . . abridging . . . the right of the people ... to petition the 
government for a redress of grievances." Under this right 
the antislavery people had long been petitioning Congress to 
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and the petitions 
had been received ; but of course not granted. Now, in 1836, 
when John Quincy Adams presented one to the House of Rep- 
resentatives, a member moved that it be not received. A fierce 
debate followed, and out of it grew a rule which forbade any 

1 South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, and Georgia. 

2 James G. Birney and his Tiines, pp. 184-194. 

3 Wilson's Bise and Fall of the Slave Power in America., Vol. II., 
Chap. 27 ; James G. Birney and his Times, pp. 204-219, 241-255. 



POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 315 

petition, resolution, or paper relating in any way to slavery, or 
the abolition of slavery, to be received. This famous "Gag 
Eiile '' was adopted by Congress after Congress until 1844.^ 

351. The Liberty Party formed. — The effect of these extreme 
measures was greatly to increase the antislavery sentiment. 
But the men who held these sentiments were largely members 
of the Whig and Democratic parties. In the hope of drawing 
them from their parties, and inducing them to act together, 
the antislavery conventions about 1838 began to urge the 
formation of an antislavery party, which 'was finally accom- 
plished at Albany, N.Y., in April, 1840, where James G. 
Birney was nominated for President, and Thomas Earle for 
Vice President. No name was given to the new organization 
till 1844, when it was christened " Liberty party." 

352. The Log Cabin, Hard Cider Campaign. — The candidate 
of the Democrats (Martin Van Buren) was a shrewd and skill- 
ful politician. The candidate of the Whigs (Harrison) was 
the ideal of a popular favorite. To defeat him at such a time, 
when the people were angry with the Democrats, would have 
been hard, but they made it harder still by ridiculing his 
honorable poverty and his Western surroundings. At the very 
outset of the campaign a Democratic newspaper declared that 
Harrison would be more at home "in a log cabin, drinking 
hard cider and skinning coons, than living in the White House 
as President." The Whigs instantly took up the sneer and 
made the log cabin the emblem of their party. All over the 
country log cabins (erected at some crossroads, or on the 
village common, or on some vacant city lot) became the Whig 
headquarters. On the door was a coon skin ; a leather latch 
string was always hanging out as a sign of hospitality, and 
beside the door stood a barrel of hard cider. Every Whig 
wore a Harrison and Tyler badge, and knew by heart all the 
songs in the Log Cahin Songster. Immense mass meetings 
were held, at which 50,000, and even 80,000, people attended. 
Weeks were spent in getting ready for them. In the West, 

1 Morse's Life of John Quincy Adams, pp. 249-253, 306-308. 



316 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 




William H. Harrison 



where railroads were few, the people came in covered wagons 
with provisions, and camped on the ground days before the 
meeting. At the monster meeting at Day- 
ton, 0., 100,000 people were present, covering 
ten acres of ground.^ 

353. William Henry Harrison, Ninth Presi- 
dent ; John Tyler, Tenth President. — Harrison 
was triumphantly elected, and inaugurated 
March 4, 1841. But his career was short, 
for on April 4 he died,^ and John Tyler took 
his place. Tyler had never been a Whig. 
He had always been a Democrat. Never- 
theless, the Whigs, confident of his aid, tried 
to carry out certain reform measures. 

354. The Quarrel between Tyler and the Whigs. — The first 
thing they did was to repeal the law establishing the Inde- 
pendent Treasury. This Tyler approved. They next attempted 
to reestablish the Bank of the United States 
under the name of the " Fiscal Bank of the 
United States." Tyler, who was opposed to 
banks, vetoed the bill, and when the Whigs 
sent him another to create a "Fiscal Corpo- 
ration," he vetoed that also. Then every 
member of the cabinet save Webster resigned, 
and at a meeting of the great Whig leaders 
Tyler was formally "read out of the party." 

355. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty. — Web- 
ster was Secretary of State, and though a Whig, retained his 
place in order that he might complete a treaty which deter- 
mined our boundary line from the source of the St. Croix to 
the St. Lawrence, thus settling a long dispute between Maine 
and the British provinces of New Brunswick and Canada. The 




John Tyler 



1 Shepard's Vaii Buren, pp. 323-335. 

2 His death was a great shock to the people. Two vice presidents, 
George Clinton and Elbridge Gerry, had died in office. But nobody seems 
to have thought it likely that a president would die. 



POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 



31T 



difficulty arose over the mean- 
ing of terms in the treaty of 
1783, and though twice sub- 
mitted to a joint commission, 
and once to arbitration, seemed 
further than ever from a peace- 
ful settlement when AVebster 
and Lord Ashburton arranged 
it in 1842. The treaty rati- 
fied, Webster soon resigned. 

The people meanwhile had 
recovered from the excitement 
of the campaign of 1840, and 
at the congressional election 
of 1842 they made the House of Bepresentatives Democratic. 
There were thus a Whig Senate, a Democratic House, and a 
President who was neither a Whig nor a Democrat. As a 
consequence few measures of any importance were passed till 
1845. 

SUMMARY 




Ir^ Ocean 



4. 



During 1789-1825 a marked change had taken place in the ideas of 
government, and this led to new state constitutions ; to an exten- 
sion of the right to vote ; to the belief that no President should 
have more than two terms ; to the belief that political offices 
should be given to political workers ; and to the introduction of 
the "gerrymander." 

The disappearance of issues which divided the Federalists and Re- 
publicans ; the loss of old leaders ; the appearance of a new genera- 
tion with new political issues, destroyed old party lines. 

First to disappear were the Federalists. In 1820 there was but one 
presidential candidate (Monroe), and but one political party (the 
Republican). 

During Monroe's second term the new issues began to break up the 
Republican party, and in the election of 1824 the people of the four 
great sections of the country presented candidates. For the second 
time a President (John Quincy Adams) was elected by the House 
of Representatives. 

In 1828 the Republicans again supported Jackson, and his opponents 
under Adams were defeated. In 1827 the antimasonic party arose. 



318 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF OUR COUNTRY 



6. The issues now before the people were the tariff, the recharter of 

the National Bank, and the use of the surplus revenue, and these 
became the leading questions of Jackson's eight years (1829- 
1837). 

7. The general use of the steamboat, and the good roads, so reduced 

the cost of transportation that it was possible to introduce a new 
piece of political machinery — the national convention — to nomi- 
nate candidates for President and Vice President. 

8. In Jackson's second term the antislavery movement began in earnest; 

the Whig party was organized and named ; the national debt was 
paid off, and the surplus distributed. 

9. Jackson was followed by Van Buren, in whose administration the 

great panic of 1837 occurred. Because of this and hard times a 
second national debt was started. A new financial measure was 
the establishment of the Independent Treasury. 
This the Whigs under Tyler destroyed. They attempted to replace it 
with a third National Bank, but were prevented from doing so by 
Tyler's vetoes. 



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POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845 



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THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 
CHAPTER XXIV 

EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA 

356. Texas secures Independence. — The fact that Tyler now 
belonged to no party enabled him to commit an act which, 
had he belonged to either, he would not have ventured to 
commit at that time, — to make a treaty of annexation with 
Texas. 

In 1821 Mexico, which for years past had been fighting 
for independence, was set free by Spain, and soon established 
herself as a republic under the name of the United States of 
Mexico. The old Spanish provinces were the states, and one 
of these provinces was Texas. As a country Texas had been 
very attractive to Americans, and the eastern part would have 
been settled early in the century if it had been definitely 
known who owned it. Now that Mexico owned it, a citizen 
of the United States, Moses Austin, asked for a large grant of 
land and for leave to bring in settlers. A grant was made on 
condition that he should bring in 300 families within a given 
time. Moses Austin died; but his son Stephen went on with 
the scheme and succeeded so well that others followed his 
example till seventeen such grants had been perfected. 

Eor some years the settlers managed their own affairs in 
their own way. But about 1830 Mexico began to rule them 
harshly, and when they were unable to stand it any longer 
they rebelled against her in 1833, and in 1836 set up the 
republic of Texas. At first the Texans were defeated, and 
on two memorable occasions bands of them were massacred by 

320 



EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA 



821 




TERRITORY CLAIMED 
BY TEXAS 

WHEN ADMITTED INTO THE UNION 
1845 



the Mexican soldiers after they had surrendered. Money and 
troops and aid of every sort, however, were sent from the 
United States, and at length Santa Anna, the President of 
Mexico, who commanded the Mexicans, was defeated and 
captured and his army destroyed by the Texans under Sam- 
uel Houston at the battle of San Jacinto (1836). The vic- 
tory was hailed with delight all over our country, and the 



322 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

independence of Texas was acknowledged by the United 
States (1837), England, France, and Belgium. 

357. Texas applies for Admission to the Union. — As soon as 
independence was acknowledged, the people of Texas became 
very anxious to have their republic become a state in oui" 
Union; but slavery existed in Texas, and the men of the free 
states opposed her admission. 

At last in 1844 Tyler secretly negotiated a treaty of annexa- 
tion with the Texan authorities, and surprised the Senate by 
submitting it in April. ^ 

The politicians were very indignant, for the national nomi- 
nating conventions were to meet in May, and the President by 
his act had made the annexation of Texas a political issue. 
The Democrats, however, took it up and in their platform 
declared for "the reannexation of Texas," and nominated 
James K. Polk of Tennessee for President and George Mifflin 
Dallas of Pennsylvania for Vice President. 

358. The Joint Occupation of Oregon is continued. — But there 
was another plank in the Democratic platform of 1844 which 
promised the acquisition of a great piece of free soil. We left 
the question of the ownership of Oregon at the time when the 
United States and Great Britain (in 1818) agreed to hold the 
country in joint occupation for ten years; and when Russia, 
the United States, and Great Britain had (in 1824 and 1825) 
made 54° 40' the boundary line between the Oregon country 
and Alaska. Before the ten-year period of joint occupation 
expired. Great Britain and the United States, in 1827, agreed 
to continue it indefinitely. Either party could end the agree- 
ment after a year's notice to the other. 

359. Attempts to end Joint Occupation. — Before this time the 
men who came to the Oregon country were explorers, trappers, 
hunters, servants of the great fur companies, who built forts 
and trading stations, but did little for the settlement of the 
region. After this time missionaries were sent to the Indians, 
and serious efforts were made to persuade men to emigrate to 

1 The Senate rejected the treaty. 



EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA S2S 

Oregon. Some parties did go, and as a result of their work, 
and of the labors of the missionaries, Oregon, in the course of 
ten years, became better known to the people of the United 
States. 

Efforts were then begun to persuade Congress to extend 
the jurisdiction of the United States over Oregon, order the 
occupation of the country, and end the old agreement with 
Great Britain. Petitions were sent (1838-1840), reports were 
made, bills were introduced ; but Congress stood firmly by the 
agreement, and would not take any steps toward the occupa- 
tion of Oregon. In 1842, Elijah White, a former missionary, 
came to Washington and so impressed the authorities with the 
importance of settling Oregon that he was appointed Indian 
Agent for that country, and told to take back with him as 
many settlers as he could. Returning to Missouri, he soon 
gathered a band of 112 persons and with these, the largest 
number of settlers that had yet started for Oregon, he set ofP 
across the plains in the spring of 1842. At the next session 
of Congress (1842-1843) another effort was made to provide for 
the occupation of Oregon at least as far north as 49°, and a bill 
for that purpose passed the Senate. 

Meanwhile a rage for emigration to Oregon broke out in the 
West, and in the early summer of 1843, nearly a thousand 
persons, with a long train of wagons, moved out of Westport, 
Missouri, and started northwestward over the plains. Like 
the emigrants of 1842, they succeeded in reaching Oregon, 
though they encountered many hardships. 

360. " Fifty-Four Forty or Fight." — So much attention was 
thus attracted to Oregon, in 1843, that the people by 1844 
began to demand a settlement of the boundary and an end of 
joint occupation. The Democrats therefore gladly took up the 
Oregon matter. Their plan to reanuex Texas, which was slave 
soil, could, they thought, be offset by a declaration in favor of 
acquiring all Oregon, which was free soil. The Democratic 
platform for 1844, therefore, declared that '^ our title to the whole 
of Oregon is clear; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded 




8^4 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

to England or any other power; and that the reoccupation 
of Oregon and the reannexation of Texas" were great American 
measures, which the people were urged to support. The people 
thought they were great American measures, and with the 
popular cries of " The reannexation of Texas," " Texas or 
disunion," "The whole of Oregon or none," 
"Fifty -four forty or fight," the Democrats 
entered the campaign and won it, electing 
James K. Polk and George M. Dallas. 

The Whigs were afraid to declare for or 
against the annexation, so they said nothing 
about it in their platform, and nominated 
Henry Clay of Kentucky and Theodore 
Frelinghuysen of New Jersey. The real 
James . o question of the campaign was of course the 

annexation of Texas, and though the platform was silent on 
that subject their leader spoke out. In a public letter which 
appeared in a newspaper and was copied all over the Union, 
Clay said that he believed slavery was doomed to end at no 
far away day ; that the admission of Texas could neither hasten 
nor put off the arrival of that day, and that he " should be glad 
to see " Texas annexed if it could be done " without dishonor, 
without war, and with the common consent of the Union and 
upon just and fair terms." 

Language of this sort did not please the antislavery Whigs ; 
and in New York numbers of them voted for James G. Birney 
and Thomas Morris, candidates of the Liberty party. The 
result was that the vote for Birney in New York in 1844 was 
more than twice as great as he received in the whole Union in 
1840. Had half of these New Yorkers voted for Clay instead, 
he would have received the electoral vote of New York and 
would have been President. 

361. Texas annexed to the United States. — Tyler, who saw 
in the result of the election a command from the people to 
acquire Texas, urged Congress in December, 1844, to annex it at 
once. But in what manner should it be acquired ? Some said 



EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA 



325 




by a treaty. This would require the consent of two thirds of 
the Senate. But the Democrats did not have the votes of two 
thirds of the Senate and so could not have secured the ratifica- 
tion of such a treaty. It was decided, therefore, to annex by 
joint resolution, which required but a majority for its passage. 
The House of liepresentatives accordingly passed such a resolu- 
tion, for the admission of Texas, and with her consent for the 



326 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

formation of four additional states out of the territory, those 
north of 36° 30' to be free. The Senate amended this resolu- 
tion and gave the President power to negotiate another treaty 
of annexation, or submit the joint resolution to Texas. The 
House accepted the amendment. Tyler chose to offer the 
terms in the joint resolution. Texas accepted them, and in 
December, 1845, her senators and representatives took their 
seats in Congress. 

362. Oregon. — By the admission of Texas, the Democrats 
made good one of the pledges in their platform of 1844. They 
were now called on to make good the other, which promised 
the whole of Oregon up to 54° 40'. To suppose that England 
would yield to this claim, and so cut herself off entirely from 
the Pacific coast, was absurd. Nevertheless, because of the 
force of popular opinion, the one year's notice necessary to 
terminate joint occupation was served on Great Britain in 
1846. The English minister thereupon presented a treaty ex- 
tending the 49th parallel across Oregon from the Rocky Moun- 
tains to the coast, and drawing a line down the strait of Juan 
de Fuca to the Pacific. Polk and the Senate accepted this 
boundary, and the treaty was proclaimed on August 5, 1846. 
Two years later, August 14, 1848, Oregon was made a territory. 

363. General Taylor enters Texas ; War with Mexico begins. — 
When Texas came into the Union, she claimed as her western 
boundary the Bio Grande from its mouth to its source and 
then a line due north to 42°. Now this line was disputed by 
Mexico, which claimed that the Nueces Biver was the western 
boundary of Texas. The disputed strip of territory was thus 
between the Nueces and the Bio Grande (p. 321). 

President Polk, however, took the side of Texas, claimed the 
country as far as the Bio Grande, and in January, 1846, ordered 
General Zachary Taylor to march our army across the Nueces, 
go to the Bio Grande, and occupy the disputed strip. This he 
did, and on April 25, 1846, the Mexicans crossed the river and 
attacked the Americans. Taylor instantly sent the news to 
Washington, and, May 12, Polk asked for a declaration of war. 



EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA 327 

"Mexico," said he, "has passed the boundary of the United 
States ; has invaded our territory and shed American blood on 
American soil." Congress declared that war existed, and Polk 
called for 50,000 volunteers (May 13, 1846). 

When the Mexicans crossed the Rio Grande and attacked 
the Americans at Fort Brown, Taylor was at Point Isabel. 
Hurrying southward to the relief of the fort, he met the enemy 
at Palo Alto, beat them, pushed on to Resaca de la Palma, beat 
them again, and soon crossed the river and took possession of 
the town of Matamoras. There he remained till August, 1846, 
waiting for supplies, reenforcements, and means of transporta- 
tion, when he began a march toward the city of Monterey. The 
Mexicans, profiting by Taylor's long stay at Matamoras, had 
gathered in great force at Monterey, and had strongly fortified 







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-^"-^-^ 


^15 E X A S iS 


^ Rtihop's Pahice 






r^Ca.a\Qfv2^. ^,^^1?,^,^}^^^^^ 




Monterey 


J 


MataraouaS*^ (ll , 

J ^ ^ 


X 


/' 


SaltiUpi/^ 




1^ fr. 


•''"'S^l.ia Nueva 




CAMPAIGN OF GEN.TAYLOR In ^ ' II 






SCALE OF MILES j/ f ^^ ^ 





every position. But Taylor attacked with vigor, and after 
three days of continuous fighting, part of the time from street 
to street and house to house, the Mexican General Ampudia 
surrendered the city (September 24, 1846). An armistice of 
six weeks' duration was then agreed on, after which Taylor 
moved on leisurely to Saltillo (sahl-teel'-yo). 

364. Scott in Mexico. — Meantime, General Winfield Scott 
was sent to Mexico to assume chief command. He reached 
the mouth of the Rio Grande in January, 1847, and called on 
Taylor to send him 10,000 men. Santa Anna (sahn'-tah ahn - 
nah), who commanded the Mexicans, hearing of this order, 
marched at once against Taylor, who took up a strong position 



328 



THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 



at Buena Vista (bwa'-nah vees'-tah), where a desperate battle 
was fought February 23, 1847. The Americans won, and 
Santa Anna hurried off to attack Scott, who was expected 
at Vera Cruz. Scott landed there in March, and, after a 
siege of a few days, took the castle and city, and ten days 
later began his march westward along the national high- 
way towards the ancient capital of the Aztecs. It was just 
328 years since Cortez with his little band started from the 
same point on a precisely similar errand. At every step of the 
way the ranks of Scott grew thinner and thinner. Hundreds 
perished in battle. Hundreds died by the wayside of disease 



CAMPAIGN OF GEN.SCOTT 

SCALE OF MILES 












more terrible than battle. But Scott would not turn back, 
and victory succeeded victory with marvelous rapidity. 
April 8 he left Vera Cruz. April 18 he stormed the heights 
of Cerro Gordo. April 19 he was at Jalapa (hah-lah-pah). 
On the 22d Perote (pa-ro'-ta) fell. May 15 the city of Puebla 
(pweb'-lah) was his. There Scott staid till August 7, when he 
again pushed westward, and on the 10th saw the city of Mexico. 
Then followed in rapid succession the victories of Contreras 
(con-tra'-rahs), Churubusco (choo-roo-boos'-ko), Molino del Key 
(mo-lee -no del ra), the storming of Chapultepec (chah-pool-ta- 
pek'), and the triumphal entry into Mexico, September 14, 
1847. Never before in the history of the world had there 
been made such a march. 



EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA 329 

365. The ♦'Wilmot Proviso." — In 1846 the Mexican War 
was very hateful to many Northern people, and as a new House 
of Representatives was to be elected in the autumn of that year, 
Polk thought it wise to end the war if possible, and in August 
asked for $2,000,000 " for the settlement of the boundary ques- 
tion with Mexico." This, of course, meant the purchase of terri- 
tory from her. But Mexico had abolished slavery in 1827, 
and lest any territory bought from her should be made slave 
soil, David Wilmot of Pennsylvania moved that the money 
should be granted, provided all territory bought with it should 
be free soil. The proviso passed the House, but not the Senate. 
Next year (1847) a bill to give Polk $3,000,000 with which to 
settle the boundary dispute was introduced, and again the pro- 
viso was attached. But the Senate rejected it, and the House 
then gave way, and passed the bill without the proviso. 

366. Conquest of New Mexico and California. — While Taylor 
was winning victories in northeastern Mexico, Colonel Stephen 
W. Kearny was ordered to march into New Mexico. Leav- 
ing Fort Leavenworth in June, 1846, he went by the Upper 
Arkansas River to Bents Fort, thence southwest through 
what is now Colorado, and by the old Santa Fe trail to the 
Rio Grande valley and Santa Fe (p. 330). After taking the 
city without opposition, he declared the whole of New Mexico 
to be the property of the United States, and then started to 
seize California. On arriving there, he found the conquest 
completed by the combined forces of Stockton and Fremont. 

367. The Great American Desert. — But how came Fremont 
to be in California in 1846 ? 

If you look at any school geography published between 1820 
and 1850 you will find that a large part of what is now Ne- 
braska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Texas is 
put down as " The Great American Desert." Many believed 
it was not unlike the Desert of Sahara, and that nobody would 
ever want to cross it, while there was so much fertile land to 
the eastward. This view made people very indifferent as to 
our claims to Oregon, so that when Thomas H. Benton, one of 



EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA 331 

the senators from Missouri, and one of the far-sighted states- 
men of the day, wanted Congress to seize and hold Oregon by 
force of arms, he was told that it was not worth the cost. 
"Oregon," said one senator, "will never be a state in the 
Union." "Build a railroad to Oregon?" said another. "Why, 
all the wealth of the Indies would not be sufficient for such a 
work." 

368. The Santa Fe and Oregon Trails. — Some explorations you 
remember had been made. Lewis and Clark went across the 
Northwest to the mouth of the Columbia in 1804-1805, and 
Zebulon M. Pike had penetrated in 1806 to the wild moun- 
tainous region about the head waters of the Platte, Arkansas, 
and Rio Grande and had probably seen the great mountain 
that now bears his name. Major Long followed Pike in 1820, 
gave his name to Longs Peak, and brought back such a dismal 
account of the West that he was largely responsible for the 
belief in a desert. The great plains from the sources of the 
Sabine, Brazos, and Colorado rivers to the northern boundary 
were, he said, " peculiarly adapted as a range for buffaloes, wild 
goats, and other wild game," and "might serve as a barrier 
to prevent too great an expansion of our population west- 
ward " ; but nobody would think: of cultivating the plains. 
For years after that the American Fur Trading Company of 
St. Louis had annually sent forth its caravans into Oregon and 
New Mexico. Because the way was beset by hostile Indians, 
these caravans were protected by large and strongly armed 
bands, and in time wore out well-beaten tracks across the prai- 
ries and over the mountain passes, which came to be known 
on the frontier as the Santa Fe and Oregon trails. In 1832 
Captain Bonneville ^ took a wagon train over the Rocky Moun- 
tain divide into the Green River valley, and Nathaniel J. 
Wyeth led a party from New England to the Oregon country, 
and in 1834 established Fort Hall in what is now Idaho. Still 
later in the thirties went Marcus Whitman and his party. 

369. Explorations of Fremont. — By this time it was clear 

1 Read his adventures as told by Washington Irving. 
McM. Hist. — 19 



332 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

that the tide of westward emigration would soon set in strongly 
towards Oregon. Then at last Benton succeeded in persuad- 
ing Congress to order an exploration of the far West, and in 
1842 Lieutenant Fremont was sent to see if the South Pass of 
the Eocky Mountains, the usual crossing place, would best 
accommodate the coming emigration. He set out from Kansas 
City (then a frontier hamlet, now a prosperous city) with Kit 
Carson, a famous hunter, for guide, and following the wagon 
trails of those who had gone before him, made his way to the 
pass. He found its ascent so gradual that his party hardly 
knew when they reached the summit. Passing through it to 
the valley beyond, he climbed the great peak which now bears 
his name and stands 13,570 feet above the sea. 

Though Fremont discovered no new route, he did much to 
dispel the popular idea created by Long that the plains were 
barren, and the American Desert began to shrink. In 1843 
Fremont was sent out again. Making his way westward through 
the South Pass, where his work ended in 1842, he turned south- 
ward to visit Great Salt Lake, and then pushed on to Walla 
Walla on the Columbia River (see map on p. 330). Thence he 
went on to the Dalles, and then by boat to Fort Vancouver, 
and then, after returning to the Dalles, southward to Sutter's 
Fort in the Sacramento valley, and so back to the States in 
1844. 

In 1845 Fremont, who had now won the name of "Path- 
finder," was sent out a third time, and crossing what are now 
Nebraska and Utah, reached the vicinity of Monterey in Cali- 
fornia. The Mexican authorities ordered him out of the coun- 
try. But he spent the winter in the mountains, and in the 
spring was on his way to Oregon, when a messenger from 
Washington overtook him, and he returned to Sutter's Fort. 

370. The Bear State Republic. — This was in June, 1846. 
Rumors of war between Mexico and the United States were 
then flying thick and fast, and the American settlers m Cali- 
fornia, fearing they would be attacked, revolted, and raising 
a flag on which an image of a grizzly bear was colored in 



EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA 



333 



red paint, proclaimed California an independent republic. 
These Bear State republicans were protected and aided by 
Fremont and Commodore Stockton, who was on the Cali- 
fornia coast with a fleet, and together they held California 
till Kearny arrived. 

371. Terms of Peace. — Thus when the time came to make 
peace, our armies were in military possession of vast stretches 




TERRITORY W 

CEDED BY 

IVIEXIOO 
1848 and 1853 



of Mexican territory which Polk refused to give up. Mexico, 
of course, was forced to yield, and in February, 1848, at a 
little place near the city of Mexico, called Guadalupe Hidalgo, 
a treaty was signed by which Mexico gave up the land and 
received in return $15,000,000. The United States was also 
to pay claims our citizens had against Mexico to the amount 



834 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY • 

of $3,500,000. This added 522,568 square miles to the public 
domain.^ 

372. The Gadsden Purchase. — When the attempt was made 
to run the boundary line from the Rio Grande to the Gila 
River, so many difficulties occurred that in 1853 a new treaty 
was made with Mexico, and the present boundary established 
from the Rio Grande to the Gulf of California. The line then 
agreed on was far south of the Gila River, and for this new 
tract of land, 45,535 square miles, the United States paid 
Mexico $10,000,000. It is generally called the Gadsden Pur- 
chase, after James Gadsden, who negotiated it. 

Much of this territory acquired in 1848, especially New 
Mexico and California, had long been settled by the Spaniards. 
But the acquisition of it by the United States at once put an 
end to the old Mexican government, and made it necessary 
for Congress to provide new governments. There must be 
American governors, American courts, American judges, cus- 
tomhouses, revenue laws ; in a word, there must be a complete 
change from the Mexican way of governing to the American 
way. To do this ought not to have been a hard thing; but 
Mexico had abolished slavery in all this territory in 1827. It 
was free soil, and such the anti-extension-of -slavery people of 
the North insisted on keeping it. The proslavery people of 
the South, on the other hand, insisted that it should be open 
to slavery, and that any slaveholder should be allowed to emi- 
grate to the new territory with his slaves and not have them 
set free. The political question of the time thus became. Shall, 
or shall not, slavery exist in New Mexico and California ? 

373. The Free-soil Party. — As a President to succeed Polk 
was to be elected in 1848, the two great parties did their 
best to keep the troublesome questio(Q of slavery out of poli- 
tics. When the Whig convention met, it positively refused to 
make a platform, and nominated General Zachary Taylor of 

1 This new territory included not only the present California and New 
Mexico, but also Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and parts of Colorado and 
Wyoming. 



EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA 335 

Louisiana, and Millard 'Fillmore of New York, without a state- 
ment of party principles. 

When the Democratic convention met, it made a long plat- 
form, but said nothing about slavery in the territories, and 
nominated Lewis Cass of Michigan and William 0. Butler. 

This refusal of the two parties to take a stand on the ques- 
tion of the hour so displeased many Whigs and Wilmot-Pro- 
viso Democrats that they held a convention at Buffalo, where 
the old Liberty party joined them, and together they formed 
the ^'Free-soil party." They nominated Martin Van Buren 
and Charles F. Adams, and in their platform made four im- 
portant declarations : 

1. That Congress has no more power to make a slave, than to 

make a king. 

2. That there must be " free soil for a free people." 

3. "No more slave states, no more slave territories." 

4. That we will inscribe on our banners "Free soil, free 

speech, free labor, and free men." 

They also asked for cheaper postage, and for free grants of 
land to actual settlers. 

The Whigs won the election. 

374. Zachary Taylor, Twelfth President. — Taylor and Fill- 
more were inaugurated on March 5, 1849, because the 4th came 
on Sunday. Their election and the triumph 
of the Whigs now brought on a crisis in the 
question of slavery extension. 

375. State of Feeling in the South. — South- 
ern men, both Whigs and Democrats, were 
convinced that an attempt would be made by 
Northern and Western men opposed to the 
extension of slavery to keep the new territory 
free soil. Efforts were at once made to pre- ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ 
vent this. At a meeting of Southern members of Congress, an 
address written by Calhoun was adopted and signed, and pub- 
lished all over the country. It 




336 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

1. Complained of the difficulty of capturing slaves when they 

escaped to the free states, 

2. Complained of the constant agitation of the slavery ques- 

tion by the abolitionists. 

3. And demanded that the territories should be open to slavery. 

A little later, in 1849, the legislature of Virginia adopted 
resolutions setting forth : 

1. That "the attempt to enforce the Wilmot Proviso" would 

rouse the people of Virginia to " determined resistance at 
all hazards and to the last extremity." 

2. That the abolition of the slave trade in the District of 

Columbia would be a direct attack on the institutions 
of the Southern States. 

The Missouri legislature protested against the principle of 
the Wilmot Proviso, and instructed her senators and repre- 
sentatives to vote with the slaveholding states. The Ten- 
nessee Democratic State Central Committee, in an address, 
declared that the encroachments of their Northern brethren 
had reached a point where forbearance ceased to be a virtue. 
At a dinner to Senator Butler, in South Carolina, one of the 
toasts was " A Southern Confederacy." 

376. State of Feeling in the North. — Feeling in the free 
states ran quite as high. 

1. The legislatures of every one of them, except lowa,^ re- 

solved that Congress had power and was in duty bound 
to prohibit slavery in the territories. 

2. Many of them bade their congressmen do everything possi- 

ble to abolish slavery and the slave trade in the District 
of Columbia. 

The struggle thus coming to an issue in the summer of 1849 
was precipitated by a most unlooked-for discovery in Cali- 
fornia, which led the people of that region to take matters 
into their own hands. 

1 Iowa had been admitted December 28, 1846. 



EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA 



337 



377. Discovery of Gold in California. — One day in the month 
of .January, 1848, while a man named Marshall was construct- 
ing a mill race in the valley of the American Kiver in Cali- 
fornia, for a Swiss immigrant named Sutter, he saw particles 
of some yellow substance shinnig in the mud. Picking up a 
few, he examined thein, and thinking they might be gold, he 
gathered some more and set off for Sutter's Fort, where the 
city of Sacramento now stands. 




Sutter's mill 



As soon as he had reached the fort and found Mr. Sutter, 
the two locked themselves in a room and examined the yellow 
flakes Marshall had brought. They were gold ! But to keep 
the secret was impossible. A Mormon laborer, watching their 
excited actions at the mill race, discerned the secret, and then 
the news spread fast, and the whole population went wild. 
Every kind of business stopped. The stores were shut. Sailors 
left the ships. Soldiers defiantly left their barracks, and by 



338 



THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 



the middle of the summer men came rushing to the gold fields 
from every part of the Pacific coast. Later in the year reports 
reached the East, but so slowly did news travel in those 
days that it was not till Polk in his annual message confirmed 
it, that people really believed there were gold fields in Cali- 
fornia. Then the rush from the East began. Some went 
overland, some crossed by the Isthmus of Panama, some went 
around South America, filling California with a population of 




San Francisco in 1847 

strong, adventurous, and daring men. These were the " forty- 
niners." 

378. The Californians make a Free-State Constitution.— 

When Taylor heard that gold hunters were hurrying to Cali- 
fornia from all parts of the world, he was very anxious to 
have some permanent government in California; and encour- 
aged by him the pioneers, the "forty-niners," made a free- 
state constitution in 1849 and applied for admission into the 
Union. ^ 

1 For an account of this movement to make Cahfornia a state, see 
Rhodes's History of the United States, Vol. I., pp. 111-116. 



EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA 389 

379. Clay proposes a Compromise. — When Congress met in 
1849 there were therefore a great many things connected with 
slavery to be settled : 

1. Southern men complained that the existing fugitive-slave 

law was not enforced in the free states and that runaway 
slaves were not returned. 

2. The Northern men insisted that slavery should be abol- 

ished in the District of Columbia. 

3. Southern men demanded the right to go into any territory 

of the United States, as New Mexico or Utah or even 
California, and take their slaves with them. 

4. The Free-soilers demanded that there should be no more 

slave states, no more slave territories. 

5. The North wanted California admitted as a free-soil state. 

The South would not consent. 

So violent and bitter was the feeling aroused by these ques- 
tions, that it seemed in 1850 as if the Union was about to be 
broken up, and that there were to be two republics, — a North- 
ern one made up of free states, and a Southern one made up 
of slave states. 

Happily this was not to be ; for at this crisis Henry Clay, 
the "Compromiser," the "Pacificator," the "Peacemaker," as 
he was fondly called, came forward with a plan of settlement. 

To please the North, he proposed, first, that California 
should be admitted as a free state; second, that the slave 
trade — that is, the buying and selling of slaves — should be 
abolished in the District of Columbia. To please the South, 
he proposed, third, that there should be a new. and very strin- 
gent fugitive-slave law; fourth, that New Mexico and Utah 
should be made territories without reference to slavery — that 
is, the people should make them free or slave, as they pleased. 
This was called " popular sovereignty " or " squatter sover- 
eignty." Fifth, that as Texas claimed so much of New 
Mexico as was east of the Rio Grande, she should give up her 
claim and be paid money for so doing. 



340 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

380. Clay, Calhoun, Seward, and Webster on the Compromise. 

— The debate on the compromise was a great one. Clay's 
defense of his plan was one of the finest speeches he ever 
made.^ Calhoun, who was too feeble to speak, had his argu- 
ment read by another senator. Webster, on the "7th of 
March," made the famous speech which still bears that name. 
In it he denounced the abolitionists and defended the com- 
promise, because, he said, slavery could not exist in such an 
arid country as New Mexico. William H. Seward of New 
York spoke for the Free-soilers and denounced all compro- 
mise, and declared that the territories were free not only by the 
Constitution, but by a " higher law " than the Constitution, 
the law of justice and humanity.^ 

After these great speeches were made. Clay's plan was sent 
to a committee of thirteen, from which came seven recom- 
mendations : 

1. The consideration of the admission of any new state or 

states formed out of Texas to be postponed till they pre- 
sent themselves for admission. 

2. California to be admitted as a free state. 

3. Territorial governments without the Wilmot Proviso to be 

established in New Mexico and Utah. 

4. The combination of No. 2 and No. 3 in one bill. 

5. The establishment of the present northern and western 

boundary of Texas. In return for ceding her claims to 
New Mexico, Texas to receive $10,000,000. This last 
provision to be inserted in the bill provided for in No. 4. 

6. A new and stringent fugitive-slave law. 

7. Abolition of the slave trade, but not of slavery, in the Dis- 

trict of Columbia. 

Three bills to carry out these recommendations were pre- 
sented : 

1 Henry Clay's Works, Vol. H., pp. 602-634. 

2 Johnston's American Orations, VqI. II., pp. 123-219, for the speeches 
of Calhoun, Webster, and Clay. 



EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA 341 

1. The first bill provided for (a) the admission of California 

as a free state; (b) territorial governments for New 
Mexico and Utah without any restriction on slavery ; 
(c) the present northern and western boundary for Texas, 
with a gift of money. President Taylor nicknamed this 
" the Omnibus Bill," because of its many provisions. 

2. The second bill prohibited the slave trade, but not slavery, 

in the District of Columbia. 

3. The third provided for the capture and delivery of fugitive- 

slaves. 

During three months these bills were hotly debated, and 
threats of disunion and violence were made openly. 

381. Death of Taylor ; Fillmore becomes President. — In the 
midst of the debate, July 9, 1850, Taylor died, and Fillmore was 
sworn into office. Calhoun had died in March. 
Webster was made Secretary of State by Fill- 
more. In some respects these changes helped 
on the measures, all of which were carried 
through. Two of them were of great impor- 
tance. 

382. Popular Sovereignty. — The first pro- 
vided that the two new territories, New 
Mexico and Utah, when fit to be admitted as 
states, should come in with or without slavery ^^^^^^ FiUmore 
as their constitutions might determine; meantime, the question 
whether slavery could or could not exist there, if it arose, was 
to be settled by the Supreme Court. 

383. The Fugitive-Slave Law. — The other important measure 
of the compromise was the fugitive-slave law. The old fugitive- 
slave law enacted in 1793 had depended for its execution on 
state judges. This new law of 1850 

1. Gave United States commissioners power to turn over a 

colored man or woman to anybody who claimed the negro 
as an escaped slave. 

2. Provided that the negro could not give testimony. 




342 



THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 



3. ^' Commanded " all good citizens, when summoned, to aid in 

the capture of the slave, or, if necessary, in his delivery 
to his owners. 

4. Prescribed fine and imprisonment for anybody who har- 

bored a fugitive slave or prevented his recapture. 




Results of the Y-'-'Iro^ 
COMPROMISE 



No sooner was this law enacted than the slave owners began 
to use it, and during the autumn of 1850 a host of "slave 
catchers " and " man hunters, " as they were called, invaded 
the North, and negroes who had escaped twenty or thirty 
years before were hunted up and dragged back to slavery by 
the marshals of the United States. This so excited the free 
negroes and the people of the North, that several times during 
1851 they rose and rescued a slave from his captors. In New 
York a slave named Hamet, in Boston one named Shadrach, in 
Syracuse one named Jerry, and at Ottawa, Illinois, one named 



EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA 343 

Jim, regained their liberty in this way. So strong was public 
feeling that Vermont in 1850 passed a '^ Personal Liberty Law," 
for the protection of negroes claimed as slaves.^ 

The North was now becoming strongly antislavery. It had 
long been opposed to the extension of slavery, but was now 
becoming opposed to its very existence. How deep this feel- 
ing was, became apparent in the summer of 1852, when Mrs. 
Harriet Beecher Stowe published her story of Uncle Tom^s 
Cabin. It was not so much a picture of what slavery was, 
as of what it might be, and was so powerfully written that it 
stirred and aroused thousands of people in the North who, till 
then, had been quite indifferent. In a few months everybody 
was laughing and crying over " Topsy " and " Eva " and " Uncle 
Tom " ; and of those who read it great numbers became aboli- 
tionists. 

SUMMARY 

1. The Mexican state of Texas revoUs and in 1837 becomes independent. 

2. President Tyler secretly negotiates a treaty for the annexation of 

Texas to the United States, but this is defeated (1844). 

3. The labors of Elijah White and others lead to the rapid settlement 

of the Oregon country. 

4. The annexation of Texas and the occupation of the whole of Oregon 

become questions in the campaign of 1844. The Democrats carry 
the election, Texas is annexed, and the Oregon country is divided 
between Great Britain and the United States. 

5. The question of the boundary of Texas brings on the Mexican War, 

and in 1848 another vast stretch of country is acquired. 

6. The acquisition of this new territory, which was free soil, causes a 

struggle for the introduction of slavery into it. 

7. The refusal of the Whigs and Democrats to take issue on slavery in 

the territories leads to the formation of the Free-soil party. 

8. The discovery of gold in California, the rush of people thither, and the 

formation of a free state seeking admission into the Union force 
the question of slavery on Congress. 

9. In 1850 an attempt is made to settle it by the " Compromise of 1850." 

1 On the Compromise of 1850 read Rhodes's History of the United States, 
Vol. I., pp. 104-180 ; Schurz's Life of Clay, Vol. II.,*Chap. 26. Do not 
fail to read the speeches of Calhoun, Clay, Webster, Seward ; also 
Lodge's Life of Webster, pp. 264-332. For the rescue cases read Wilson's 
Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Chap. 26. 



344 



THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 





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CHAPTER XXV 

THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL 

384. Franklin Pierce, Fourteenth President. — Although the 
struggle with slavery was thus growing more and more serious, 
the two great parties pretended to consider the question as 
finally settled. In 1852 the Democrats nominated Franklin 
Pierce and William R. King, and declared in their platform 
that they would " abide by and adhere to " the Compromise of 

1850, and would " resist all attempts at renew- 
ing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of 
the slavery question." The Whigs nominated 
General Winfield Scott, and declared that they 
approved the fugitive-slave law, and accepted 
the compromise measures of 1850 as "a settle- 
ment in principle " of the slavery question, and 
would do all they could to prevent any further 
Franklin Pierce ^ig^^gsi^n of it. 

So far as the Whigs were concerned, the question was 
settled; t )r the Northern people, angry at their acceptance of 
the Compromise of 1850 and the fugitive-slave law, refused to 
vote for Scott, and Pierce was elected.^ 

The Free-soilers had nominated John P. Hale and George 
W. Julian. 

385. The Nebraska Bill. — Pierce was inaugurated March 4, 
1853. He, too, believed that all questions relating to slavery 
were settled. But he had not been many months in office 
when the old quarrel was raging as bitterly as ever. In 1853 

1 Pierce carried every state except Massachusetts, Vermont, Tennessee, 
and Kentucky. 

346 




THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL 347 

all that part of our country which lies between the Missouri 
River and the Rocky Mountains, the south boundary of Kan- 
sas and 49°, was wilderness, known as the Platte country, and 
was without any kind of territorial government. In January, 
1854, a bill to organize this great piece of country and call it 
the territory of Nebraska was reported to the Senate by the 
Committee on Territories, of which Stephen A. Douglas of 
Illinois was chairman. Every foot of it was north of 36° 30', 
and according to the Missouri Compromise was free soil. But 
the bill provided for popular sovereignty; that is, for the 
right of the people of Nebraska, when they made a state, to 
have it free or slave, as they pleased. 

386. The Kansas-Nebraska Law. — An attempt was at once 
made to prevent this. But Douglas recalled his bill and 
brought in another, providing for two territories, one to be 
called Kansas^ and the other Nebraska, expressly repealing 
the Missouri Compromise,^ and opening the country north of 
36° 30' to slavery.^ The Free-soilers, led on by Salmon P. 
Chase of Ohio, Seward of New York, and Charles Sumner of 
Massachusetts, did all they could to defeat the bill; but it 
passed, and Pierce signed it and made it law.^ 

387. The Struggle for Kansas. — Thus was it ordained that 
Kansas and Nebraska, once expressly set apart as free soil, 
should become free or slave states according as they were 
settled while territories by antislavery or proslavery men. 
And now began a seven years* struggle for Kansas. " Come 

1 The northern and southern boundaries of Kansas were those of the 
present state, but it extended westward to the Rocky Mountains. 

2 It declared that the slavery restriction of the Missouri Compromise 
" was suspended by the principles of the legislation of 1850, commonly 
called the compromise measures, and is hereby declared inoperative." 

3 The "true intent and meaning" of this act, said the law, is, " not to 
legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom, but 
to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their 
domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitu- 
tion of the United States." Read Rhodes's History of the United States, 
Vol. I., pp. 425-490. 

4 May 30, 1854. 



K»on (MV I E N '^ A ;. VA^evWe" 

LVanBuren -^r Jf^T" ^^ 




THE UNITED STATES 

in 1851 ° 

N) SEVENTY FIVE YEARS AFTER INDEPENDENCE 

^ Showing" Railroads and ^jabMSf^ 

I OYerla^d Routes , \ BRADLEvA»poAm,ENGR's,inYH 



349 



350 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

on, then," said Seward of New York in a speech against the 
Kansas BiH; "Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave states. 
Since there is no escaping your challenge, I accept it on 
behalf of freedom. We will engage in competition for the 
virgin soil of Kansas, and God give the victory to the side 
that is stronger in numbers as it is in the right." 

This described the situation exactly. The free-state men 
of the North and the slave-state men of the South were to rush 
into Kansas and struggle for its possession. The moment the 
law opening Kansas for settlement was known in Missouri, 
numbers of men crossed the Missouri Kiver, entered the 
territory, held squatters' meetings,^ drove a few stakes into 
the ground to represent " squatter claims," went home, and 
called on the people of the South to hurry into Kansas. Many 
did so, and began to erect tents and huts on the Missouri Eiver 
at a place which they called Atchison.^ 

But the men of the North had not been idle, and in July a 
band of free-state men, sent on by the New England Emigrant 
Aid Society,^ entered Kansas and founded a town on the 
Kansas Eiver some miles to the south and west of Atchison. 
Other emigrants came in a few weeks later, and their collection 
of tents received the name of Lawrence.^ 

What was thus taking place at Lawrence happened else- 

1 At one of their meetings it was resolved : " That we will afford pro- 
tection to no abolitionist s a settler of this country." " That we recog- 
nize the institution of slavery as already existing in this territory, and 
advise stockholders to introduce their property as early as possible." 

2 Called after Senator Atchison of Missouri. 

3 The New England Emigrant Aid Society was founded in 1854 by 
Hon. Eli Thayer of Worcester, Mass., in order " to plant a free state in 
Kansas," by aiding antislavery men to go out there and settle. 

4 After Amos A. Lawrence, secretary of the Aid Society, It was a city 
of tents. Not a building existed. Later came the log cabin, which was 
a poor affair, as timber was scarce. The sod hut now so common in the 
Northwest was not thought of. In the early days the "hay tent" was 
the usual house, and was made by setting up two rows of poles, then 
bringing tlieir tops together, thatching the roof and sides with hay. The 
two gable ends (in which were the windows and doors) were of sod. 



THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL 351 

where, so that by October, 1854, that part of Kansas along the 
Missouri Kiver was held by the slave-state men, and the part 
south of the Kansas River by the free-state men.^ 

In November of the same year the struggle began. There 
was to be an election of a territorial delegate^ to represent 
Kansas in Congress, and a day or two before the time set for 
it the Missourians came over the border in armed bands, took 
possession of the polls, voted illegally, and elected a pro- 
slavery delegate. 

388. Kansas a Slave Territory. — The election of members 
of the territorial legislature took place in March, 1855, and 
for this the Missourians made great preparations. On the 
principle of popular sovereignty the people of Kansas were 
to decide whether the territory should be slave or free. 
Should the majority of the legislature consist of free-state 
men, then Kansas would be a free territory. Should a 
majority of proslavery men be chosen, then Kansas was 
doomed to have slavery fastened on her, and this the 
Missourians determined should be done. For weeks before 
the election, therefore, the border counties of Missouri were 
all astir. Meetings were held, and secret societies, called Blue 
Lodges, were formed, the members of which were pledged to 
enter Kansas on the day of election, take possession of the 
polls, and elect a proslavery legislature. The plan was 
strictly carried out, and as election day drew near, the Mis- 
sourians, fully armed, entered Kansas in companies, squads, 
and parties, like an invading army, voted, and then went 
home to Missouri. Every member of the legislature save 
one was a proslavery man, and when that body met, all the 
slave laws of Missouri were adopted and slavery was formally 
established in Kansas. 

1 The proslavery towns were Atchison, Leavenworth, Lecompton, 
Kickapoo. The antislavery towns were Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan, 
Waubunsee, Hampden, Ossawatomie. 

2 Each territory is allowed to send a delegate to the House of Repre- 
sentatives, where he can speak, but not vote. 



352 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

389. The Topeka Free-State Constitution. — The free-state 
men repudiated the bogus legislature, held a convention at 
Topeka, made a free-state constitution, and submitted it to 
the popular vote. The people having ratified it (of course no 
proslavery men voted), a governor and legislature were chosen. 
When the legislature met, senators were elected and Congress 
was asked to admit Kansas into the Union as a state. 

390. Personal Liberty Laws ; the Underground Railroad. — 
The feeling of the people of the free states toward slavery can 
be seen from many signs. The example set by Vermont in 
1850 was followed in 1854 by Rhode Island, Connecticut, and 
Michigan, and in 1855 by Maine and Massachusetts, in each of 
which were passed "Personal Liberty laws," designed to pre- 
vent free negroes from being carried into slavery on the claim 
that they were fugitive slaves. Certain state officers were re- 
quired to act as counsel for any one arrested as a fugitive, and 
to see that he had a fair trial by jury. To seize a free negro 
with intent to reduce him to slavery was made a crime. 

Another sign of the times was the sympathy manifested for 
the operations of what was called the Underground Railroad. 
It was, of course, not a railroad at all, but an organization by 
which slaves escaping from their masters were aided in getting 
across the free states to Canada. 

391. Breaking up of Old Parties. — Thus matters stood when, 
in 1856, the time came to elect a President, and found the old 
parties badly disorganized. The political events of four years 
had produced great changes. The death of Clay^ and Web- 
ster ^ deprived the Whigs of their oldest and greatest leaders. 
The earnest support that party gave to the Compromise of 
1850 and the execution of the fugitive-slave law estranged 
thousands of voters in the free states. The Kansas-Nebraska 
Bill, opposed as it was by every Northern Whig, completed the 
ruin and left the party a wreck. 

But the Democrats had also suffered because of the Kansas- 
Nebraska law and the repeal of the Compromise of 1820. 
1 June 29, 1862. 2 October 24, 1852. 



THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL 353 

No anti-extension-of-slavery Democrat could longer support the 
old party. Thousands had therefore broken away, and, acting 
with the dissatisfied Whigs, formed an unorganized opposition 
known as " Anti-Nebraska men." 

392. The Movement against Immigrants. — Many old Whigs, 
however, could not bring themselves to vote with Democrats. 
These joined the American or Know-nothing party. From the 
close of the Kevolution there had never been a year when a 
greater or less number of foreigners did not come to our shores. 
After 1820 the numbers who came each twelvemonth grew 
larger and larger, till they reached 30,000 in 1830, and 60,000 
in 1836, while in the decade 1830-1840 more than 500,000 
immigrants landed at New York city alone. 

As the newcomers hurried westward into the cities of the 
Mississippi valley, the native population was startled by the 
appearance of men who often could not speak our language. 
In Cincinnati in 1840 one half the voters were of foreign birth. 
The cry was now raised that our institutions, our liberties, our 
system of government, were at the mercy of men from the 
monarchical countries of Europe. A demand was made for a 
change in the naturalization law, so that no foreigner could 
become a citizen till he had lived here twenty-one years. 

393. The American Republicans or Native Americans. — Neither 
the Whigs nor the Democrats would endorse this demand, so 
the people of Louisiana in 1841 called a state convention and 
founded the American Republican, or, as it was soon called, 
the Native American pa.rty. Its principles were 

1. Put none but native Americans in office. 

2. Require a residence of twenty-one years in this country 

before naturalization. 

3. Keep the Bible in the schools. 

4. Protect from abuse the proceedings necessary to get naturali- 

zation papers. 

As the members would not tell what the secrets of this party 
were, and very often would not say whom they were going to 



354 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

vote for, and when questioned -would answer "I don't know," 
it got the name of "Know-nothing" party. ^ 

For a time the party flourished greatly and secured six 
members of the House of Representatives, then it declined 
in power ; but the immense increase in immigration between 
1846 and 1850 again revived it, and somewhere in New York 
city in 1852 a secret, oath-bound organization, with signs, 
grips, and passwords, was founded, and spread with such 
rapidity that in 1854 it carried the elections in Massachusetts, 
New York, and Delaware. Next year (1855) it elected the 
governors and legislatures of eight states, and nearly carried 
six more. Encouraged by these successes, the leaders deter- 
mined to enter the campaign of 1856, and called a party con- 
vention which nominated Millard Fillmore and Andrew Jackson 
Donelson. Delegates from seven states left the convention be- 
cause it would not stand by the Missouri Compromise, and tak- 
ing the name North Americans nominated N. P. Banks. He 
would not accept, and the bolters then joined the Republicans. 

394. Beginning of the Republican Party. — As early as 1854, 
when the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was before Congress, the 
question was widely discussed all over the North and West, 
whether the time had not come to form a new party out of 
the wreck of the old. With this in view a meeting of citizens 
of all parties was held at Ripon, Wisconsin, at which the 
formation of a new party on the slavery issue was recom- 
mended, and the name Republican suggested. This was before 
the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. 

After its passage a thousand citizens of Michigan signed a 
call for a state mass meeting at Jackson, where a state party 
was formed, named Republican, and a state ticket nominated, 
on which were Free-soilers, Whigs, and Anti-Nebraska Demo- 
crats. Similar "fusion tickets" were adopted in Wisconsin 
and Vermont, where the name Republican was used, and in 
Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. 

1 Rhodes's History of the United States, Vol. II., pp. 51-58 ; McMaster's 
With the Fathers, pp. 87-106. 



THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL 355 

The success of the new party in Wisconsin and Michigan in 
1854, and its yet greater success in 1855, led the chairmen of 
the Republican state committees of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Mas- 
sachusetts, Vermont, and Wisconsin to issue a call for an 
informal convention at Pittsburg on February 22, 1856. At 
this meeting the National Republican party was formed, and 
from it went a call for a national nominating convention to 
meet (June 17, 185G) at Philadelphia, where John C. Fre- 
mont and William L. Dayton were nominated. 

The Free-soilers had joined the Republicans and so disap- 
peared from politics as a party. 

The Whigs, or "Silver Grays," met and endorsed Fillmore. 

The Democrats nominated James Buchanan and John C. 
Breckinridge and carried the election. The Whigs and the 
Know-nothings then disappeared from national politics. 

395. James Buchanan, Fifteenth Presi- 
dent; the "Dred Scott Decision." — When 
Buchanan and Breckinridge were inaugu- 
rated, March 4, 1857, certain matters re- 
garding slavery were considered as legally 
settled forever, as follows : 

1. Foreign slave trade forbidden. 

2. Slave trade between the states allowed. 

3. Fugitive slaves to be returned. 

4. Whether a state should permit or abolish , „ ^ 

^ James Buchanan 

slavery to be determined by the state. 

5. Squatter sovereignty to be allowed in Kansas and Ne- 

braska, Utah and New Mexico territories. 

6. The people in a territory to determine whether they would 

have a slave or a free state when they made a state con- 
stitution. 

Now there were certain questions regarding slavery which 
were not settled, and one of them was this: If a slave is 
taken by his master to a free state and lives there for a 
while, does he become free ? 
McM. Hist. — 20 




356 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

To this the Supreme Court gave the answer two days after 
Buchanan was inaugurated. A slave by the name of Dred 
Scott had been taken by his master from the slave state of 
Missouri to the free state of Illinois, and then to the free soil 
of Minnesota, and then back to the state of Missouri, where 
Scott sued for his freedom, on the ground that his residence 
on free soil had made him a free man. Two questions of 
vast importance were thus raised : 

1. Could a negro whose ancestors had been sold as slaves 

become a citizen of one of the states in the Union ? For 
unless Dred Scott was a citizen of Missouri, where he then 
lived, he could not sue in the United States court. 

2. Did Congress have power to enact the Missouri Compromise ? 

For if it did not then the restriction of slavery north of 
36° 30' was illegal, and Dred Scott's residence in Minnesota 
did not make him free. 

From the lower courts the case came on appeal to the Supreme 
Court, which decided 

1. That Dred Scott was not a citizen, and therefore could 

not sue in the United States courts. His residence in 
Minnesota had not made him free. 

2. That Congress could not shut slave property out of the 

territories any more than it could shut out a horse or 
a cow. 

3. That the piece of legislation known as the Missouri Com- 

promise of 1820 was null and void. This confirmed all 
that had been gained for slavery by the Kansas-Nebraska 
Act of 1864, and opened to slavery Oregon and Washing- 
ton, which were free territories. 

396. Effect of the Dred Scott Decision. — Hundreds of thou- 
sands of copies of this famous decision were printed at once 
and scattered broadcast over the country as campaign docu- 
ments. The effect was to fill the Southern people with delight 
and make them more reckless than ever, to split the Demo- 



THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL 



357 




cratic party in the North ; to increase the number of Repub- 
licans in the North , and make them more determined than 
ever to stop the spread of slavery into the territories. 

397. Struggle for Freedom in Kansas. — We left Kansas in 
1856 with a proslavery governor and legislature in actual 
possession, and a free-state governor, legislature, and senators 
seeking recognition at Washington. In 1857 there were so 
many free-state men in Kansas that they elected an antislavery 
legislature. But just before the proslavery men went out of 
power they made a proslavery constitution,^ and instead of sub- 

1 The convention met at the town of Lecompton ; in consequence of 
which the constitution is known as the "Lecompton constitution." 



358 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

mitting to the people the question, Will you, or will you not, 
have this constitution ? they submitted the question, Will you 
have this constitution with or without slavery ? On this the 
free settlers would not vote, and so it was adopted with slavery. 
But when the antislavery legislature met soon after, they 
ordered the question. Will you, or will you not, have this con- 
stitution ? to be submitted to the people. Then the free set- 
tlers voted, and it was rejected by a great majority. Buchanan, 
however, paid no attention to the action of the free settlers, but 
sent the Lecompton constitution to Congress and urged it to 
admit Kansas as a slave state. But Senator Douglas of Illinois 
came forward and opposed this, because to force a slave con- 
stitution on the people of Kansas, after they had voted against 
it, was contrary to the doctrine of "popular sovereignty." He, 
with the aid of other Northern Democrats, defeated the attempt, 
and Kansas remained a territory till 1861. 

398. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates. — The term of Douglas as 
senator from Illinois was to expire on March 4, 1859. The 
legislature whose duty it would be to elect his successor was 
itself to be elected in 1858. The Democrats, therefore, 
announced that if they secured a majority of the legislators, 
they would reelect Douglas. The Republicans declared that 
if they secured a majority, they would elect Abraham Lincoln 
United States senator. The real question of the campaign 
thus became. Will the people of Illinois have Stephen A. 
Douglas or Abraham Lincoln for senator 7"^ 

The speech making opened in June, 1858, when Lincoln 
addressed the convention that nominated him at Springfield. 
A month later Douglas replied in a speech at Chicago. Lincoln, 
who was present, answered Douglas the next evening. A few 
days later, Douglas, who had taken the stump, replied to Lincoln 
at Bloomington, and the next day was again answered by Lin- 

1 The Republican state convention at Springfield, June 16, 1858, "re- 
solved, that Abraham Lincoln is the first and only choice of the Repub- 
licans of Illinois for the United States Senate as the successor of Stephen 
A. Douglas." 



. THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL 359 

coin at Springfield. The deep interest aroused by this running 
debate led the Kepublican luanagers to insist that Lincoln should 
challenge Douglas to a series of joint debates in public. The 
challenge was sent and accepted, and debates were arranged 
for at seven towns ^ named by Douglas. The questions dis- 
cussed were popular sovereignty, the Dred Scott decision, 
the extension of slavery to the territories ; and the discussion 
of them attracted the attention of the whole country. Lincoln 
was defeated in the senatorial election ; but his great speeches 
won for him a national reputation.^ 

399. John Brown's Raid into Virginia. — As slavery had 
become the great political issue of the day, it is not surprising 
that it excited a lifelong and bitter enemy of slavery to do 
a foolish act. John Brown was a man of intense convictions 
and a deep-seated hatred of slavery. When the border ruf- 
fianism broke out in Kansas in 1855, he went there with arms 
and money, and soon became so prominent that he was out- 
lawed and a price set on his head. In 1858 he left Kansas, 
and in July, 1859, settled near Harpers Ferry, Va. (p. 360). His 
purpose was to stir up a slave insurrection in Virginia, and so 
secure the liberation of the negroes. With this in view, one 
Sunday night in October, 1859, he with less than twenty fol- 
lowers seized the United States armory at Harpers Ferry and 
freed as many slaves and arrested as many whites as possible. 
But no insurrection or uprising of slaves followed, and before he 
could escape to the mountains he was surrounded and captured 
by Robert E. Lee, then a colonel in the army of the United 
States. Brown was tried on the charges of murder and of 
treason against the state of Virginia, was found guilty, and 
in December, 1859, was hanged. 

1 One in each Congressional district except those containing Chicago 
and Springfield, where both Lincoln and Douglas had already spoken. 
For a short account of their debates see the Century Magazine for July, 
1887, p. 386. 

■- Rhodes's History of the United States, Vol. II., pp. 308-339. Nicolay 
and Hay's Life of Lincoln, Vol. II., Chaps. 10-16. John T. Morse's Life 
of Lincoln^ Vol, I., Chap. 6. 



360 



THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 




Harpers Ferry 



400. Split in the Democratic Party. — Thus it was tliat one 
event after another prolonged the struggle with slavery till 
I860, when the people were once more to elect a President. 

The Democratic nominating convention assembled at Charles- 
ton, S.C, in April, and at once went to pieces. A strong major- 
ity made np of Northern delegates insisted that the party should 
declare — " That all questions in regard to the rights of property 
in states or territories arising under the Constitution of the 
United States are judicial in their character, and the Demo- 
cratic party is pledged to abide by and faithfully carry out 
such determination of these questions as has been or may be 
made by the Supreme Court of the United States." 

This meant to carry out the doctrine laid down in the Dred 
Scott decision, and was in conflict with the "popular sover- 
eignty " doctrine of Douglas, which was that the right of the 
people to make a slave territory or a free territory is perfect 



THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL 361 

and complete. The minority, composed of the extreme South- 
ern men, rejected the former plan and insisted 

1. " That the Democracy of the United States hold these car- 

dinal principles on the subject of slavery in the terri- 
tories : First, that Congi-ess has no power to abolish 
slavery in the territories. Second, that the territorial 
legislature has no power to abolish slavery in any terri- 
tory, nor to prohibit the introduction of slaves therein, 
nor any power to exclude slavery therefrom, nor any 
right to destroy or impair the right of property in 
slaves by any legislation whatever." 

2. That the Federal government must protect slavery "on 

the high seas, in the territories, and wherever else its 
constitutional authority extends." 

Both majority and minority agreed in asserting 

1. That the Personal Liberty laws of the free states "are 

hostile in their character, subversive of the Constitution, 
and revolutionary in their effect." 

2. That Cuba ought to be acquired by the United States. 

3. That a railroad ought to be built to the Pacific. 

Their agreement was a minor matter. Their disagreement 
was so serious that when the minority could not have its 
way, it left the convention, met in another hall, and adopted 
its resolutions. 

The majority of the convention then adjourned to meet at 
Baltimore, June 18, 1860. As it was then apparent that Doug- 
las would be nominated, another split occurred, and the few 
Southern men attending, together with some Northern dele- 
gates, withdrew. Those who remained nominated Stephen A. 
Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson. 

The second group of seceders met in Baltimore, adopted the 
platform of the first group of seceders from the Charleston 
convention, and nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Ken- 
tucky, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon. 



THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL 363 

401. The Constitutional Union Party Meanwhile (May 9) 

another party, calling itself the National Constitutional Union 
party, met at Baltimore. These men were the remnants of the 
old Whig and American or Know-nothing parties. They nomi- 
nated John Bell, of Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of Massa- 
chusetts, and declared for ''the Constitution of the country, 
the union of the states, and the enforcement of the laws." 

402. Election of Lincoln. — The Eepublican party met in con- 
vention at Chicago on May 16, and nominated Abraham Lincoln, 
and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. It 

1. Kepudiated the principles of the Dred Scott decision. 

2. Demanded the admission of Kansas as a free state. 

3. Denied all sympathy with any kind of interference with 

slavery in the states. 

4. Insisted that the territories must be kept free. 

5. Called for a railroad to the Pacific, and a homestead law. 

The election took place in November, 1860. Of 303 elec- 
toral votes cast, Lincoln received 180 ; Breckinridge, 72 ; Bell, 
39 ; and Douglas, 12. 

SUMMARY 

1. The Compromise of 1850 did not settle the question of slavery in the 

territories, and an attempt to organize Kansas and Nebraska brought 
it up again. 

2. In the organization of these territories a new political doctrine, 

"popular sovereignty," was announced. 

3. This was applied in Kansas, and the struggle for Kansas began. The 

first territorial government was proslavery. The antislavery men 
then made a constitution (Topeka) and formed a free state govern- 
ment. Thereupon the proslavery men formed a constitution (Le- 
compton) for a slave state. This was submitted to Congress and 
rejected, and Kansas remained a territory till 1861. 

4. In the course of the struggle for free soil in Kansas the Whig party 

went to pieces, the Democratic was split into two wings, and the 
Know-nothing or Native American party and the Republican party 
arose. 

5. The Republican party was defeated in 1856, but the Dred Scott de- 

cision in 1857 and the continued straggle in Kansas forced the ques- 
tion of slavery to the front, and in 1860 Lincoln was elected. 



364 



THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 



STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY. 



I The Compromise of 1850.1 



I 
Democratic party. 

Pledged to support 
the compromise and 
the fugitive - slave 
law. Nominates 

Pierce and King. 
1852. 

Pierce elected, 1852. 



I 
The M'higs. 



Pledged to support 
the compromise and 
the fugitive-slave 
law. Nominate 

Scott. 1852. 



Free-soil party. 

Denounces the com- 
promise and the 
fugitive - slave law. 
Nominates Hale and 
Julian. 1852. 



American 

Republican, 

or 

Know-nothing party. 



Kansas-Nebraska law, 1854. 
Missouri Compromise re- 
pealed. —Struggle for Kan- 
sas. — Becomes a slave ter- 
ritory. — The Topeka free 
state constitution. 



- Break up old parties, 1854. 



Southern 



' Southern Demo 

crats. 

Northern Demo- ( ^ Northern 

, crats. j [ Whigs 

A nti- Nebraska ) _ j Anti-Nebraska I 

Democrats. i "~ ) Whigs. ( 



J Whigs. 



Democrats, 1856. 



Whigs, 1856. 



Nominate Buchanan "Silver Grays" en- 
and Breckinridge. dorse Fillmore and 
1 Donelson. 



Buchanan elected, 

1856. 



Fusion tickets, 
1854. 



Republican party, 
1854-1856. 



Nominates Fremont 
and Davton, 1856. 



Dred Scott decision, 185T. 
— Lincoln-Douglas debates, 
1858. — Struggle in Kansas : 
Lecompton proslavery con- 
stitution before Congress. 
-John Brown raid, 1859. 



1860. 
Democratic party. 



Slavery before the nomina- 
ting conventions, I860. 



!56. Nominates Fill- 
more and Donel- 
son. The " Silver 
Grays " endorse 
the ticket. 



SpHts on the question of slavery 
in the territories into 

State rights. Popular sovereignty. 



1860. Nominates Lin- 
coln and Hamlin. 



1860. Under tlu' name 
of Constitutional 
Union party nomi- 
nates Bell and 
Everett. 



Breckinridge 
and Lane. 



Secession. 



Douglas and 
Johnson. 



Lincoln elected. 



Union. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1840 AND 1860 




Chicago in 1832 

403. The Movement of Population. — The twenty years which 
elapsed between the election of Harrison, in 1840, and the 
election of Lincoln, in 1860, had seen a most astonishing 
change in our country. In 1840 neither Texas, nor the 
immense region afterwards acquired from Mexico, belonged 
to us. There were then but twenty-six states and five terri- 
tories, inhabited by 17,000,000 people, of whom but 876,000 
lived west of the Mississippi Eiver, mostly close to the river 
bank in Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The great North- 
west was still a wilderness, and many a city now familiar to 
us had no existence. Toledo and Milwaukee and Indianap- 
olis had each less than 3000 inhabitants; Chicago had less 

365 



366 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

than 5000; and Cleveland, Columbus, and Detroit, each less 
than 10,000. Yet the rapid growth of cities had been one of 
the characteristics of the period 1830 to 1840. 

The effect of new mechanical appliances on the movement 
of population was amazing. The day when emigrants settled 
along the banks of streams, pushed their boats up the rivers by- 
means of poles, carried their goods on the backs of pack horses, 
and floated their produce in Kentucky broadhorns down the 
Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans, was fast disappearing. 
The steamboat, the canal, the railroad, had opened new possi- 
bilities. Land once valueless as too far from market suddenly 
became valuable. Men grew loath to live in a wilderness ; the 
rush of emigrants across the Mississippi was checked. The 
region between the Alleghanies and the great river began to 
fill up rapidly. During the twenty years, 1821 to 1841, but 
two states, Arkansas (1836) and Michigan (1837), were ad- 
mitted to the Union, and but three new territories, Florida 
(1822-23), Wisconsin (1836), and Iowa (1838), were established. 

So few people went west from the Atlantic seaboard states 
that in each one of them except Maine and Georgia population 
increased more rapidly than it had ever done for forty years. 
From the Mississippi valley states, however, numbers of people 
went to Wisconsin and Iowa. 

In consequence of this, Iowa was admitted to the Union 
in 1846, and Wisconsin in 1848. Minnesota and Oregon were 
made territories. Florida and Texas had been admitted in 
1845, and the number of states was thus raised to thirty before 
1850. The population of the country in 1850 was 23,000,000. 
Two states in the Mississippi valley now had each of them 
more than a million of inhabitants. 

404. The First States on the Pacific. — Until 1840 the people 
had moved westward steadily. Each state as it was settled 
had touched some other east, or north, or south of it. After 
1840 people, attracted by the rich farming land and pleasant 
climate of Oregon, and after 1848 by the gold mines of Cali- 
fornia, rushed across the plains to the Pacific, and between 




367 



368 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

1850 and 1860 built up the states of California and Oregon 
(1859), and the territory of Washington (1853). Minnesota 
was admitted in 1858. The population of the United States 
in 1860 was 31,000,000. 

405. Immigration to the United States since 1820. — The 
people whose movements across our continent we have been 
following were chiefly natives of the United States. But we 
have reached the time when foreigners began to arrive by 
hundreds of thousands every year. From the close of the 
Eevolution to 1820, it is thought not more than 250,000 of the 
Old World people came to us. But the hard times in Europe, 
which followed the disbanding of the great armies which had 
been fighting France and Napoleon from 1789 to 1815, started 
a general movement. Beginning at 10,000, in 1820, more and 
more came every year till, in 1842, 100,000 people — men, 
women, and children — landed on our shore. This was the 
greatest number that had ever come in one year. But it was 
surpassed in 1846, when the potato famine in Ireland, and 
again in 1853, when hard times in Germany, and another famine 
in Ireland, sent over two immense streams of emigrants. In 
1854 no less than 428,000 persons came from the Old World ; 
more than ever came again in one year till 1872. 

406. Modern Conveniences. — When we compare the daily 
life of the people in 1850 with that of the men of 1825, the 
contrast is most striking. The cities had increased in num- 
ber, grown in size, and greatly changed in appearance. The 
older ones seemed less like villages. Their streets were better 
paved and lighted. Omnibuses and street cars were becoming 
common. The constable and the night watch had given way 
to the police department. Gas and plumbing were in general 
use. The free school had become an American institution, 
and many of the numberless inventions and discoveries which 
have done so much to increase our happiness, prosperity, and 
comfort, existed at least in a rude form. 

Between 1840 and 1850 nearly 7000 miles of railroad were 
built, making a total mileage of 9000. This rapid spread of 



PKOGRESS BETWEEN 1840 AND 18G0 369 

the railroad, when joined with the steamboats, then to be 
found on every river and lake within the settled area, made 
possible an institution which to-day renders invaluable service. 

407. Express Companies. — In 1839 a young man named 
W. F. Harnden began to carry packages, bundles, money, and 
small boxes between New York and Boston, and thus started 
the express business. At first he carried in a couple of carpet 
bags all the packages intrusted to him, and went by boat 
from New York to Stonington, Conn., and thence by rail to 
Boston. But his business grew so rapidly that in 1840 a rival 
express was started by P. B. Burke and Alvin Adams. Their 
route was from Boston to Springfield, Mass., and thence to New 
York. This was the foundation of the present Adams Express 
Company. Both companies were so well patronized that in 
1841 service was extended to Philadelphia and Albany, and 
in 1844 to Baltimore and "Washington. Their example was 
quickly followed by a host of imitators, and soon a dozen ex- 
press companies were doing business between the great cities. 

408. Postage Stamps introduced — At that time (1840) three 
cents was the postage for a local letter which was not deliv- 
ered by a carrier. Indeed, there were no letter carriers, and 
this in large cities was such an inconvenience that private 
dispatch companies undertook to deliver letters about the city 
for two cents each ; and to accommodate their customers they 
issued adhesive stamps, which, placed on the letters, insured 
their delivery. The loss of business to the government 
caused by these companies, and the general demand for 
quicker and cheaper mail service, forced Congress to revise 
the postal laws in 1845, when an attempt was made to intro- 
duce the use of postage stamps by the government. As the 
mails (in consequence of the growth of the country and the 
easy means of transportation) were becoming very heavy, 
the postmasters in the cities and important towns had already 
begun to have stamps printed at their own cost. Their pur- 
pose was to save time, for letter postage was frequently (but 
not always) prepaid. But instead of fixing a stamp on the 



370 



THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 




St. Louis postage 
stamp 



envelope (there was no such thing in 1840), the writer sent 
the letter to the post office and paid the postage in money, 
whereupon the postmaster stamped the letter "Paid." This 
consumed the time of the postmaster and the letter writer. 
But when he could go once to the post office and prepay a 
hundred letters by buying a hundred stam|)s, any one of which 
affixed to a letter was evidence that its postage 
had been paid, any man who wanted to could 
save his time. These stamps the postmasters 
sold at a little more than the expense of print- 
ing. Thus the postmasters of New York and 
St. Louis charged one dollar for nine ten-cent 
or eighteen five-cent stamps. This increased 
the price of postage a trifle ; but as the use of 
the stamps was optional, the burden fell on 
those willing to bear it, while the convenience 
was so great that the effort made to have the Post-office De- 
partment furnish the stamps and require the people to use 
them succeeded in 1847. 

409. Mechanical Improvements. — No American need be told 
that his fellow-countrymen are the most ingenious people the 
world has ever known. But we do not always remember that 
it was during this period (1840-1860) that the marvelous 
inventive genius of the people of the United States began to 
show itself. Between the day when the patent office was 
established, in 1790, and 1840, the number of patents issued 
was 11,908 ; but after 1840 the stream poured forth increased 
in volume nearly every year. In 1855 there were 2012 issued 
and reissued; in 1856, 2506; in 1857, 2896; in 1858, 3695; 
and in 1860, 4778, raising the total number to 43,431. An 
examination of these inventions shows that they related to 
cotton gins and cotton presses ; to reapers and mowers ; to 
steam engines ; to railroads ; to looms ; to cooking stoves ; to 
sewing machines, printing presses, boot and shoe machines, 
rubber goods, floor cloths, and a hundred other things. Very 
many of them helped to increase the comfort of man and raise 



PROGRESS BETWEEN 1840 AND 18G0 



371 



the standard of living. Three of them, however, have revolu- 
tionized the industrial and business world and been of inesti- 



mable good 
the reaper 




Thie fli^t Howe sewing machine 



to mankind. They are the sewing machine, 
and the electric telegraph. 

410. The Sewing Machine. — As far back 
as the year 1834, Walter 
Hunt made and sold a few 
sewing machines in New 
York. But the man to 
whose genius, perseverance, 
and unflinching zeal the 
world owes the sewing ma- 
chine, is Elias Howe. His 
patent was obtained in 1846, 
and he then spent four years 
in poverty and distress try- 
ing to convince the world of 
the utility of his machine. 
By 1850 he succeeded not only in interesting the public, but 
in so arousing the mechanical world that seven rivals (Wheeler 
and Wilson, Grover and Baker, Wilcox and Gibbs, and Singer) 
entered the field. To the combined efforts of them all, we owe 
one of the most useful inventions of the century. It has 
lessened the cost of every kind of cloth- 
ing ; of shoes and boots ; of harness ; 
of everything, in short, that 
can be sewed. It has given 
employment to millions of 
people, and has greatly 
added to the comfort of 
every household in the civil- 
ized world. 

411. The Harvester. — 
Much the same can be said 
of the McCormick reaper. It was invented and patented as 
early as 1831 ; but it was hard work to persuade the farmer to 




The Wilson sewing machine of 1850 



372 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

use it. Not a machine was sold till 1841. During 1841, 1842, 
1843, such as were made in the little blacksmith shop near 
Steel's Tavern, Virginia, were disposed of with difficulty. 
Every effort to induce manufacturers to make the machine was 
a failure. Not till McCormick had gone on horseback among 
the farmers of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and se- 
cured written orders for his reapers, did he persuade a firm in 
Cincinnati to make them. In 1845, five hundred were manu- 
factured ; in 1850, three thousand. In 1851 McCormick placed 
one on exhibition at the World's Fair in London, and aston- 
ished the world with its performance. To-day two hundred 
thousand are turned out annually, and without them the great 
grain fields of the middle West and the far West would be 
impossible. The harvester has cheapened the cost of bread, 
and benefited the whole human race. 

412. The Telegraph. — Think, again, what would be our condi- 
tion if every telegraph line in the world were suddenly pulled 
down. Yet the telegraph, like the reaper and the sewing 
machine, was introduced slowly. Samuel F. B. Morse got his 
patent in 1837 ; and for seven years, helped by Alfred Vail, he 
struggled on against poverty. In 1842 he had but thirty-seven 
cents in the world. But perseverance conquers all things ; and 
with thirty thousand dollars, granted by Congress, the first 
telegraph line in the world was built in 1844 from Baltimore 
to Washington. In 1845 New York and Philadelphia were 
connected; but as wires could not be made to work under 
water, the messages were received on the New Jersey side of 
the Hudson and carried to New York by boat. By 1856 the 
telegraph was in use in the most populous states. Some forty 
companies, but one of which paid dividends, competed for the 
business. This was ruinous ; and in 1856 a union of Western 
companies was formed and called the Western Union Tele- 
graph Company. To-day it has 24,000 offices, sends each year 
some 68,000,000 messages, receives about $30,000,000, and 
does three fourths of all the telegraph business in the United 
States. 



PROGRESS BETWEEN 1840 AND 1860 373 

413. India Rubber. — The same year (1844) which witnessed 
the introduction of the telegraph saw the perfection of Good- 
year's secret for the vulcanization of India rubber. In 1820 
the first pair of rubber shoes ever seen in the United States 
were exhibited in Boston. Two years later a ship from South 
America brought 500 pairs of rubber shoes. They were thick, 
heavy, and ill-shaped; but they sold so rapidly that more 
were imported, and in 1830 a cargo of raw gum was brought 
from South America for the purpose of making rubber goods. 
With this C. M. Chaffee went to work and succeeded in pro- 
ducing some pieces of cloth spread with rubber. Supposing 
the invention to be of great value, a number of factories ^ began 
to make rubber coats, caps, wagon curtains, of pure rubber 
without cloth. But to the horror of the companies the goods 
melted when hot weather came, and were sent back, emitting so 
dreadful an odor that they had to be buried. It was to over- 
come this and find some means of hardening the gum that 
Goodyear began his experiments and labored year after year 
against every sort of discouragement. Even when the secret 
of vulcanizing, as it is called, was discovered, five years passed 
before he was able to conduct the process with absolute cer- 
tainty. In 1844, after ten years of labor, he succeeded and 
gave to the world one of the most useful inventions of the 
nineteenth century. 

414. The Photograph ; the Discovery of AnaBsthesia, — But 
there were other inventions and discoveries of almost as great 
or even greater value to mankind. In 1840 Dr. John W. Draper 
so perfected the daguerreotype that it could be used to take pic- 
tures of persons and landscapes. Till then it could be used 
only to make pictures of buildings and statuary. 

The year 1846 is made yet more memorable by the discovery 
that whoever inhaled sulphuric ether would become insensible 
to pain. The glory of this discovery has been claimed for 
two men : Dr. Morton and Dr. Jackson. Which one is entitled 

1 At Roxbury, Boston, Framingham, Salem, Lynn, Chelsea, Troy, and 
Staten Island. 

McM. Hist. — 21 



374 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

to it cannot be positively decided, though Dr. Morton seems to 
have the better right to be considered the discoverer. Before, 
this, however, anaesthesia by nitrous oxide (laughing gas) had 
been discovered by Dr. Wells of Hartford, Conn., and by Dr. 
Long of Georgia. 

415. Communication with Europe; Steamships. — Progress 
was not confined to affairs within our boundary. Communi- 
cations with Europe were greatly advanced. The passage 
of the steamship Savannah across the Atlantic, partly by 
steam and partly by sail, in 1819, resulted in nothing practi- 
cal. The wood used for fuel left little space for freight. But 
when better machinery reduced the time, and coal afforded a 
less bulky fuel, the passage across the Atlantic by steam became 
possible, and in 1838 two vessels, the Sirius and the Great 
Western, made the trip from Liverpool to New York by steam 
alone. No sails were used. This showed what could be done, 
and in 1839 Samuel Cunard began the great fleet of Atlantic 
greyhounds by founding the Cunard Line. Aided by the 
British government, he drove all competitors from the field, 
till Congress came to the aid of the Collins Line, whose steam- 
ers made the first trip from New York to Liverpool in 1850. 
The rivalry between these lines was intense, and each did its 
best to make short voyages. In 1851 the average time from 
Liverpool to New York was eleven days, eight hours, for the 
Collins Line, and eleven days, twenty-three hours, for the 
Cunard. This was considered astonishing ; for Liverpool and 
New York were thus brought as near each other in point of 
time in 1851 as Boston and Philadelphia were in 1790. 

416. The Atlantic Cable. — But something more astonishing 
yet was at hand. In 1854 Mr. Cyrus W. Field of New York 
was asked to aid in the construction of a submarine cable 
to join St. Johns with Cape Eay, Newfoundland. While 
considering the matter, he became convinced that if a cable 
could be laid across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, another could 
be laid across the Atlantic Ocean, and he formed the "New 
York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company" for 



PROGRESS BETWEEN 1840 AND 1860 375 

the purpose of doing so. The first attempt, made in 1857, 
and a second in 1858, ended in failure ; but a third, in 1858, 
was successful, and a cable was laid from Valentia Bay in 
Ireland to Trinity Bay in Newfoundland, a distance of 1700 
geographical miles. For three weeks all went well, and during 
this time 400 messages were sent ; but on September 1, 1858, 
the cable ceased to work, and eight years passed before another 
attempt was made to join the Old World and the New. 

417. Condition of the Workingman. — Every class of society 
was benefited by these improvements, but no man more so 
than those who depended on their daily wages for their daily 
bread. Though wages increased but little, they were more 
easily earned and brought richer returns. Improved means 
of transportation, cheaper methods of manufacture, enabled 
every laborer in 1860 to wear better clothes and eat better 
food than had been worn or consumed by his father in 1830. 
New industries, new trades and occupations, new needs in the 
business world, afforded to his son and daughter opportuni- 
ties for a livelihood unknown in his youth, while the free 
school system enabled them to fit themselves to use such op- 
portunities without cost to him. When our country became 
independent, and for fifty years afterwards, a working day was 
from sunrise to sunset, with an hour for breakfast and another 
for dinner. After manufactures arose, and mills and factories 
gave employment to thousands of wage earners, fourteen, fifteen, 
and even sixteen hours of labor were counted a day. Protests 
were early made against this, and demands raised that a work- 
ing day should be ten hours. At last, late in the thirties, the 
ten hours system was adopted in Baltimore, and in 1840, by 
order of President Van Buren, was put in force at the navy 
yard in Washington and in "all public establishments'' under 
the Federal government. Thus established, the system spread 
slowly, till to-day it exists almost everywhere. Indeed, in 
many states, and in all departments of the Federal govern- 
ment, eight hours of work constitute a day. Thus, by the aid 
of machinery, not only are articles, formerly expensive, made 



376 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

SO cheaply that poor men can afford to use them, but the wage 
earners who operate the machinery can make these articles so 
quickly that they to-day earn higher wages for fewer hours 
of work than ever before in the history of the world. Not 
only did wages increase and the hours of labor grow shorter 
between 1840 and 1860, but the field of labor was enormously 
expanded. In 1810, when the first census of manufactures in 
the United States was taken, the value of goods manufactured 
was $173,000,000. In 1860 it was ten times as great, and 
gave employment to more than 1,000,000 men and women. 

418. Few Manufactures in the Slave States. — From much of 
the benefit produced by this splendid series of inventions and 
discoveries, the people of the slave-owning states were shut 
out. They raised corn, tobacco, and cotton, and made some 
sugar ; but in them there were very few mills or manufacturing 
establishments of any sort. While a great social and indus- 
trial revolution was going on in the free states, the people in 
the slave states remained in 1860 what they were in 1800. 
The stream of immigrants from Europe passed the slave states 
by, carrying their skill, their thrift, their energy, into the 
Northwest. The resources of the slave states were boundless, 
but no free man would go in to develop them. The soil was 
fertile, but no free laborer could live on it and compete with 
slave labor, on which all agriculture, all industry, all pros- 
perity, in the South depended. The two sections of the coun- 
try at the end of the period 1840-1860 were thus more unlike 
than ever. 

SUMMARY 

1. Between 1830 and 1850 the rush of population into the West con- 

tinued, but, instead of moving across the continent, most of the 
people settled in the states already in existence. 

2. This was due to the effect of such improved means of communication 

as steamboats, railroads, canals, etc. 

3. As a consequence, but six new states were admitted to the Union in 

twenty-nine years, and one of them was annexed (Texas). 

4. The period is also noticeable for the number of foreigners who came 

to our shores. 



PROGRESS BETWEEN 1840 AND 1860 



377 



6. After 1849 the existence of gold in California brought so many people 
to the Pacific coast that California became a state in 1850. 

6. As population grew denser, and transportation was facilitated by the 

expansion of railroads and steamboats and canals, business oppor- 
tunities were increased, and new markets were created. 

7. Labor-saving and time-saving machines and appliances became more 

in demand than ever, and a long list of remarkable inventions and 
business aids appeared. 

8. The South, owing to its own peculiar industrial and labor condition, 

was little benefited by all these improvements, and remained much 
the same as in 1800. 






Immigration . . 

No. of people in 
U. S 



Movement 
westward 



Causes. 

Number of immigrants. 
1840. 17,000,000. 
1850. 23,000,000. 
1860. 31,000,000. 

Arkansas 



New states 



Territories 



Gas. 

Plumbing. 
Paved streets. 
General use of anthracite. 
Free schools. 
Railroad expansion. 
Express. 
Postage stamps. 
I Ocean steamships. 



S •! 



. 1836. Slave. 
Michigan, 1837. Free. 
Florida, 1845. Slave. 

Texas, 1845. Slave. 

Iowa, 1846. Free. 

Wisconsin, 1848. Free. 
California, 1850. Free. 
Minnesota, 1858. Free. 
Oregon, 1859. Free. 

New Mexico, 1850. 
Utah, 1850. 
Washington, 1853. 
Kansas, 1854. 
Nebraska, 1854. 

Number of patents. 
The sewing machine. 
The harvester. 
The telegraph. 
India rubber. 
Daguerreotype. 
Anaesthesia. 
^ Atlantic cable. 



The South 



Little affected by new industrial conditions. 
Few manufactures. 
Increase of the cotton area. 
No immigration. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

WAR FOR THE U.XION, 1861-1865 

419. South Carolina secedes. — The only state where in 1860 
presidential electors were chosen by the legislature was South 
Carolina. When the legislature met for this purpose, Novem- 
ber 6, 1860, the governor asked it not to adjourn, but to 
remain in session till the result of the election was known. 
If Lincoln is elected, said he, the " secession of South Carolina 
from the Union " will be necessary. Lincoln was elected, and 
on December 20, 1860, a convention of delegates, called by 
the legislature to consider the question of secession, formally 
declared that South Carolina was no longer one of the United 
States.^ 

420. The '* Confederate States of America. " — The meaning of 
this act of secession was that South Carolina now claimed to 
be a " sovereign, free, and independent " nation. But she was 
not the only state to take this step. By February 1, 1861, Mis- 
sissippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had 
also left the Union. Three days later, February 4, 1861, dele- 
gates from six of these seven states met at Montgomery, Ala., 
formed a constitution, established a provisional government, 
which they called the "Confederate States of America," and 
elected Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stephens provi- 
sional President and Vice President. 

Toward preventing or stopping this, Buchanan did nothing. 

1 " We the people of the state of South Carolina, in convention assem- 
bled, do declare and ordain . . . that the union now subsisting between 
South Carolina and other states, under the name of the United States of 
America, is hereby dissolved." 

378 



WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865 



379 



No state, he said, had a right to secede. But a state having 
seceded, he had no power to make her come back, because he 
could not make war on a state ; that is, he could not preserve 
the Union. On one matter, however, he was forced to act. 
When South Carolina seceded, the three forts in Charleston 
harbor — Castle Pinckney, Fort Sumter, and Fort Moultrie — 
were in charge of a major of artillery named Eobert Ander- 
son. He had under him some 
eighty officers and men, and 
knowing that he could not 
hold all three forts, and fear- 
ing that the South would seize 
Fort Sumter, he dismantled 
Fort Moultrie, spiked the 



cannon, cut down the flag- 



""p -^ V'^''^ MoultrieviUe^ 
^-^lo^ ^^ Ft.Moultri^ 



staff, and removed to Fort 
Sumter, on the evening of 
December 26, 1860. 

This act was heartily ap- 
proved by the people of the 
North and by Congress, and 
Buchanan with great reluc- 
tance yielded to their de- 
mand, and sent the Star of 
the West, with food and men, 
to relieve Anderson. But as 
the vessel, with our flag at 
its fore, was steaming up the channel toward Charleston har- 
bor, the Southern batteries fired upon her, and she went 
back to New York. Anderson was thus left to his fate, and 
as Buchanan's term was nearly out, both sides waited to see 
what Lincoln would do. 

421. Why did the States secede? — Why did the Southern 
slave states secede ? To be fair to them we must seek the 
answer in the speeches of their leaders. " Your votes," said 
Jefferson Davis, " refuse to recognize our domestic institutions 



CHARLESTON HARBOR 

>J AND APPROACHES 

SCALt Of MILES 





380 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

[slavery], which preexisted the formation of the Union, our 
property [slaves], which was guaranteed by the Constitution. 
You refuse us that equality without which we should be de- 
graded if we remained in the Union. You elect a candidate 
upon the basis of sectional hostility ; one who in his speeches, 
now thrown broadcast over the country, made a distinct decla- 
ration of war upon our institutions." 

" There is," said Howell Cobb, of Georgia, Secretary of the 
Treasury of the United States, " no other remedy for the ex- 
isting state of things except immediate secession." 

"Our position," said the Mississippi secession convention, 
" is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery. A 
blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. There 
was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of aboli- 
tion, or a dissolution of the Union." 

Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice President of the Confed- 
eracy, asserted that the Personal Liberty laws of some of the 
free states " constitute the only cause, in my opinion, which 
can justify secession." 

The South seceded, then, according to its own statements, 
because the people believed that the election of Lincoln meant 
the abolition of slavery. 

422. Compromise attempted. — The Kepublican party in 1861 
had no intention of abolishing slavery. Its purpose was to 
stop the spread of slavery into the territories, to stop the ad- 
mission of more slave states, but not to abolish slavery in 
states where it already existed. A strong wish therefore 
existed in the North to compromise the sectional differences. 
Many plans for a compromise were offered, but only one, that 
of Crittenden, of Kentucky, need be mentioned. He proposed 
that the Constitution should be so amended as to provide 

1. That all territory of the United States north of 36° SO' 

should be free, and all south of it slave soil. 

2. That slaves should be protected as property by all the de- 

partments of the territorial government. 



WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865 381 

3. That states should be admitted with or without slavery as 

their constitutions provided, whether the states were 
north or south of 36° 30'. 

4. That Congress should have no power to shut slavery out 

of the territories. 

5. That the United States should pay owners for rescued fugi- 

tive slaves. 

As these propositions recognized the right of property in 
slaves, that is, put the black man on a level with horses and 
cattle, the Republicans rejected them, and the attempt to com- 
promise ended in failure. 

423. A Proposed Thirteenth Amendment. — One act of great 
significance was done. A proposition to add a thirteenth amend- 
ment to the Constitution was submitted to the states. It read, 

"No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which 
will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or 
interfere within any state with the domestic institutions 
thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by 
the laws of said states." 

Even Lincoln approved of this, and two states, Maryland 
and Ohio, accepted it. But the issue was at hand. It was too 
late to compromise. 

424. Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President. — Lincoln and 
Hamlin were inaugurated on March 4, 1861, and in his speech 
from the Capitol steps Lincoln was very careful to state just 
what he wanted to do. 

1. "I have no purpose," said he, "directly or indirectly, to 

interfere with the institution of slavery in the states 
where it exists." 

2. " I consider the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of 

my ability I shall take care . . . that the laws of the 
Union be faithfully executed in all the states." 

3. "In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence; 

and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the 
national authority. " 



382 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

4. " The power confided in me will be used to hold, occupy, 
and possess the property and places belonging to the 
government and to collect the duties and imposts." 

425. Civil War begins. — One of the places Lincoln thus 
pledged himself to "hold" was Fort Sumter, to which he 
decided to send men and supplies. As soon as notice of 
this intention was sent to Governor Pickens of South Caro- 
lina, the Confederate commander at Charleston, General Beau- 
regard (bo-ruh-gar'), demanded the surrender of the fort. 
Major Anderson stoutly refused to comply with the demand, 
and at dawn on the morning of April 12, 1861, the Confeder- 




Fort Sumter 

ates fired the first gun at Sumter. During the next thirty- 
four hours, nineteen batteries poured shot and shell into the 
fort, which steadily returned the fire. Then both food and 
powder were nearly exhausted, and part of the fort being 
on fire, Anderson surrendered ; and on Sunday, April 14, 
1861, he marched out, taking with him the tattered flag 
under which he made so gallant a fight.^ The fleet sent to 

1 " Having defended Fort Sumter for thirty-four hours, until the 
quarters were entirely burned, the main gates destroyed by fire, the gorge 
walls seriously injured, the magazine surrounded by flames, and its door 
closed from the effect of heat, four barrels and three cartridges of powder 
being available, and no provisions remaining but pork, I accepted terms of 
evacuation offered by General Beauregard . . . and marched out of the 
fort on Sunday afternoon, the 14th instant, with colors flying and drums 
beating . . . and saluting my flag'with fifty guns." — Major Anderson to 
the Secretary of War, 



WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1866 383 

his aid arrived in time to see the battle, but did not give him 
any help. After the surrender, one of the ships carried 
Anderson and the garrison to New York.^ 

426. The Life of the Republic at Stake. — Thus was begun 
the greatest war in modern history. It was no vulgar struggle 
for territory, or for maritime or military supremacy. The 
life of the Union was at stake. The questions to be decided 
were: Shall there be one or two republics on the soil of the 
United States ? Shall the great principle of all democratic- 
republican government, the principle that the will of the 
majority shall rule, be maintained or abandoned? Shall state 
sovereignty be recognized ? Shall states be suffered to leave 
the Union at will, or shall the United States continue to exist 
as " an indestructible Union of indestructible States '^ ? As 
Mr. Lincoln said, "Both parties deprecated war; but one of 
them would make war rather than let the nation survive ; and 
the other would accept war rather than let it perish." 

427. The South better prepared. — For the struggle which 
was to decide these questions neither side was ready, but the 
South was better prepared than the North. The South was 
united as one man. The North was divided and full of South- 
ern sympathizers. She knew not whom to trust. Officers of 
the army, officers of the navy, were resigning every day. The 
great departments of government at Washington contained 
many men who furnished information to Southern officials. 
Seventeen steam war vessels (two thirds of all that were not 
laid up or unfit for service) were in foreign parts. Large 
quantities of military supplies had been stored in Southern 
forts. All the great powers of Europe save Eussia were 
hostile to our republic, and would gladly have seen it rent in 
twain. The South, again, had the advantage in that she was 
to act on the defensive. 

428. Results of firing on the Flag. — Not a man was killed 
on either side during the bombardment of Sumter. Yet the 
battle was a famous one, and led to greater consequences: 

1 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. I., pp. 50-73. 



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386 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

1. Lincoln at once called for 75,000 militia to serve for three 

months. 

2. Four "border states/' as they were called, thus forced to 

choose their side, seceded. They were Arkansas, North 
• Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. 

3. The Congress of the United States was called to meet at 

Washington, July 4, 1861. 

4. After Virginia seceded, the capital of the Confederacy, at 

the invitation of the Virginia secession convention, was 
moved from Montgomery to Richmond, and the Confed- 
erate Congress adjourned to meet there July 20, 1861. 

429. West Virginia. — The act of secession by Virginia was 
promptly repudiated by the people of the counties west of the 
mountains, who refused to secede, and voted to form a new 
state under the name of Kanawha. They adopted a constitu- 
tion and were finally admitted in 1863 as the state of West 
Virginia.^ 

430. The Call to Arms. — Lincoln held that no state could 
ever leave the Union, and that therefore no state had left 
the Union. Those which had passed ordinances of seces- 
sion were to his mind states whose machinery of government 
had been seized on by persons in insurrection against the gov- 
ernment of the United States. When, therefore, he made 
his call for 75,000 militia to defend the Union, he apportioned 
the number among all the states, slave and free, north and 
south, east and west, according to their population. Those 
forming the Confederacy paid no attention to the call. The 
governors of the border slave states (Delaware, Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri) returned evasive or in- 
sulting answers. 

But the people of the loyal states responded instantly, and 

1 A state made out of part of another state cannot be admitted into the 
Union without the consent of that state first obtained. But as Congress 
and the people of West Virginia considered that Virginia consisted of that 
part of the Old Dominion which remained loyal to the Union, the people 
practically asked their own consent. 



WAR FOR THE UNION, 1801-1865 387 

tens of thousands of troops were soon on their way to Wash- 
ington. To get there was a hard matter. Baltimore lay on 
the most direct railroad route between the Eastern and Middle 
States and Washington. But Baltimore was full of disloyal 
men, who tore up the railroads, burned bridges, cut the tele- 
graph wires, and as the Massachusetts 6th regiment was passing 
through the city from one railroad station to another, attacked 
it, killing some and wounding others of its soldiers. This 
forced the troops from the other states to go by various routes 
to Annapolis and then to Washington, so that it was late in 
April before enough arrived to insure the safety of the city. 

Though none of the border and seceded states sent troops, 
the response of the loyal states to Lincoln's call was so hearty 
that more than 75,000 men were furnished. The President 
decided to turn this outburst of patriotism to good purpose, 
and May 3, 1861, asked for 42,034 volunteers for three years 
unless sooner discharged, and ordered 18,000 seamen to be 
enlisted, and 22,714 men added to the regular army. Balti- 
more was now occupied by Union troops, and communication 
with Washington through that city was restored and protected. 

On July 1, 1861, there were 183,588 " boys in blue " under 
arms and present for duty. These were distributed at various 
places north of the line, 2000 miles long, which divided 
the North and South. This line began near Fort Monroe, in 
Virginia, ran up Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac to the 
mountains, then across Western Virginia and through Ken- 
tucky, Missouri, and Indian Territory to New Mexico. 

This line was naturally divided into three parts : 

1. That in Virginia and along the Potomac. 

2. That occupied by Kentucky, a state which had declared 

itself neutral. 

3. That west of the Mississippi. 

431. The Battle of ** Bull Run" or Manassas. — General Win- 
field Scott was in command of the Union army. Under him, 
in command of the troops about Washington, was General 



388 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

Irwin McDowell. Further to the west, near Harpers Ferry, 
was a Union force under General Patterson. In western 
Virginia, with an army raised largely in Ohio, was General 
George B. McClellan. In Missouri was General Lyon, aided 
by all the Union people in the state, who were engaged in a 
desperate struggle to keep her in the Union. 

In northern Virginia and opposed to the Union forces under 
General McDowell, was a Confederate army under General 
Beauregard, and these troops the people of the North de- 
manded should be attacked. " The Confederate Congress 
must not meet at Richmond ! '' " On to Richmond ! On to 
Richmond ! " became the cries of the hour. General McDowell, 
with 30,000 men, was therefore ordered to attack Beauregard. 
McDowell found him near Manassas, some thirty miles south- 
west of Washington, and there, on the field of " Bull Run," on 
Sunday, July 21, 1861, was fought a famous battle which 
ended with the defeat and flight of the Union army.^ 

General George B. McClellan, who had defeated the Confed- 
erate forces in western Virginia in several battles, was now 
placed in command of the troops near Washington, and spent 
the rest of 1861 and part of 1862 in drilling and organizing 
his army. Bull Run had taught the people two things: 
1. That the war was not to end in three months ; 2. That an 
army without discipline is not much better than a mob. 

432. Fort Donelson and Fort Henry. — While McClellan was 
drilling his men along the Potomac, the Union forces drove 
back the Confederates in the West. The Confederate line 
at first extended as shown by the heavy line on the map on 
p. 390. In order to break it. General Buell sent a small force 
under General Thomas, in January, 1862, to drive back the 
Confederates near Mill Springs. Next, in February, General 
Halleck authorized General U. S. Grant and Flag Officer 
Foote to make a joint expedition against Fort Henry on the 
Tennessee. But Foote arrived first and captured the fort, 
whereupon Grant marched to Fort Donelson on the Cumber- 
1 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. I., pp. 229-239. 



WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865 389 

land, eleven miles away, and after three days of sharp fight- 
ing was asked by General Buckner what terms he would offer. 
Grant promptly answered, 

^s.^^ ^,-^^ ^,^-: 

Buckner at once surrendered (February 16, 1862), and Grant 
won the first great Union victory of the war.^ 

433. The Battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing. — After the 
fall of Fort Donelson, the Confederates, abandoning Colum- 
bus and Nashville, hurried south toward Corinth in Mississippi, 
whither Halleck's army followed in three parts. One under 
General S. R. Curtis moved to southwestern Missouri, and beat 
the Confederates at Pea Ridge, Ark. (March ^-'^). The second, 
under General John Pope, cooperated with Flag Officer Foote, 
from the west bank of the Mississippi, in the capture of Island 
No. 10 (April 7). Pope then joined Halleck in the movement 
against Corinth, while the fleet went on down the river, attacked 
Fort Pillow three times, captured it (June 4), and two days 
later took Memphis. 

Meanwhile the third part of Halleck's army, under Grant, fol- 
lowing the Confederates, had reached Pittsburg Landing, where 

1 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. I., pp. 398-429 ; Grant's 
Memoirs, Vol. I., pp. 285-315. 



390 



THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 




100 150 200 



Driving back the Confederate line in the West 

(April 6) he was suddenly attacked by General A. S. Johnston 
and driven back. But General Buell coming up with fresh 
troops, the battle was resumed the next day (April 7), when 
Grant regained his lost ground, and the Confederates fell back 
to Corinth.^ 

At this point General Henry Halleck arrived and took com- 
mand, and at the end of May occupied Corinth. Memphis then 
fell, and the Mississippi River was opened as far south as Yicks- 
burg. After the capture of Memphis, Halleck went to Wash- 
ington to take command of the armies of the United States. 

434. Bragg's Raid into Kentucky. — The Confederate line 
which in January, 1862, had passed across Kentucky had thus 
by June been driven southward to Chattanooga, luka, and 
Holly Springs. The Union line ran from near Chattanooga to 
Corinth and Memphis. Against this the Confederates now 
moved, with the hope of breaking through and driving it back. 
Gathering his forces at Chattanooga, General Bragg rushed 



1 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. I., pp. 465-486. 



WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865 391 

across Tennessee and Kentucky toward Louisville. But 
General Buell, perceiving his purpose, outmarched him, 
reached the Ohio, and forced Bragg to fall back. At Perry- 
ville (October 8, 1862), Bragg turned furiously on Buell and 
was beaten. 

435. luka and Corinth. — While Bragg was raiding Kentucky, 
Generals Price at luka and Van Dorn at Holly Springs, know- 
ing that Grant's army had been greatly weakened by sending 
troops to Buell, prepared to attack Corinth. But Grant, think- 
ing he could fight them separately, sent Rosecrans to luka 
(September 19). Price was not captured, but retreated to Van 
Dorn, and the two then fell upon Posecrans at Corinth (Octo- 
ber 4), only to be beaten and chased forty miles. 

436. Murfreesboro. — For these successes Rosecrans (October 
30) was given command of Buell's army, then centering at Nash- 
ville. Bragg went into winter quarters at Murfreesboro, and 
thither Rosecrans advanced fo attack him. The contest at 
Murfreesboro (December 31, 1862, and January 2, 1863) was 
one of the most bloody battles of the whole war. Bragg was 
again defeated, and retreated to a position farther south. 

437. Arkansas. — In January, 1862, the Confederate line 
west of the Mississippi extended from Belmont across southern 
Missouri to the Indian Territory. Against the west end of 
this line General Curtis moved in February, 1862, and after 
driving the Confederates under Van Dorn and Price out of 
Missouri, beat them in the desperate battle at Pea Ridge, 
Arkansas (March 6-8, 1862), and moved to the interior of the 
state. Price and Van Dorn went east into Mississippi (see 
§ 435), and when the year closed the Union forces were in con- 
trol north of the Arkansas River, and along the west bank of 
the Mississippi. On the east bank the only fortified positions 
in Confederate hands were Vicksburg, Grand Gulf, and Port 
Hudson. 

438. Farragut captures New Orleans. — While Foote was 
opening the upper part of the Mississippi, a naval expedition 
under Farragut, supported by an army under Butler, had cleared 



392 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

the lower part of the river. These forces had been sent by- 
sea to capture New Orleans. The defenses of the city con- 
sisted of two strong forts almost directly opposite each other on 
the banks of the river, about seventy-five miles south of the 
city ; of two great chain cables stretched across the river below 
the forts to prevent ships coming up ; and of fifteen armed ves- 
sels above the forts. New Orleans was thought to be safe. But 
Farragut was not dismayed. Sailing up the river till he came 
to the chains, he bombarded the forts for six days and nights, 
while the forts did their best to destroy him. Then, finding 
he could do nothing in this way, he cut the chains, ran his 
ships past the forts in spite of a dreadful fire (April 24, 1862), 
destroyed the Confederate fleet (April 25), and took the city. 
General Butler, who had been waiting at Ship Island with 
15,000 men, then entered and held New Orleans.^ 

439. The Peninsular Campaign against Richmond. — The signal 
success of Grant and Farragut in the West was more than offset 
by the signal failure of McClellan in the East. The wish 
of the administration, and indeed of the whole North, was 
that Eichmond should be captured. Against it, therefore, the 
Army of the Potomac was to move. But by what route? 
The government wanted McClellan to march south across 
Virginia, so that his army should always be between the Con- 
federate forces and Washington. McClellan insisted on mov- 
ing west from Chesapeake Bay. The result was a compromise: 

1. Forces under Fremont and Banks were to operate in the 

Shenandoah valley and prevent a Confederate force 
attacking Washington from the west. 

2. An army under McDowell was to march from Fredericks- 

burg to Eichmond. 

3. McClellan was to take the main army from Washington by 

water to Fort Monroe, and then march up the penin- 
sula to Eichmond, where McDowell was to join him. 

1 Farragut, after taking New Orleans, went up the river and captured 
Baton Rouge and Natchez. 



WAR FOR THE UNION, 18(51-1805 



393 



This peninsula, from which the campaign gets its name, 
lies between the York and James rivers. I^anding at the 
lower end of it, McClellan was met by General Joseph E, Jolm- 
ston, who caused a long delay by forcing him to besiege 
Yorktown. McClellan then advanced up the peninsula, fighting 
the battle of Williamsburg on the way. At White House Land- 
ing he turned toward 
Richmond, extending 
his right flank to 
Hanover Courthouse, 
where McDowell was 




expected to join him. But this 
was not to be, for General T. J. 
Jackson (" Stonewall " Jackson) 
rushed down the Shenandoah 
valley, driving Banks over the Potomac into Maryland, and re- 
treated south before Fremont or McDowell could cut him off; 
during this campaign he won four desperate battles in thirty -five 
days. Jackson's success alarmed Washington, and McDowell 
was held in northern Virginia. McClellan's army, meanwhile, ad- 
vanced on both sides of the Chickahominy River to within eight 
miles of Richmond. At Fair Oaks and Seven Pines (May 31) 
his left flank was almost overwhelmed by Johnston ; but the 
latter was wounded and his troops defeated. Johnston was then 
McM. Hist. —22 



394 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

succeeded by R. E. Lee, who, joined by Jackson, attacked 
McClellan at Mechanicsville and Gaines Mill, and forced him to 
fall back, fighting for six days (June 26 to July 1, 1862)^ as he 
retreated to Harrisons Landing, on the James River. There the 
army remained till August, when it was recalled to the Potomac. 

440. Lee's Raid into Maryland ; Battle of Antietam, or Sharps- 
burg. — While the Army of the Potomac was at Harrisons 
Landing, a new force called the Army of Virginia was organ- 
ized, and General John Pope placed in command. At the 
same time General Halleck was recalled from the West and 
made general in chief of the Union armies. Pope intended 
to move straight against Richmond. But when McClellan in 
obedience to orders left Harrisons Landing and took his army 
by water to the Potomac, near Washington, the Confederate 
army was left free to act as it pleased. Seeing his opportunity, 
Lee moved at once against Pope's army, whose line stretched 
along the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers to the Shenan- 
doah valley in western Virginia. Near the Rapidan at Cedar 
Mountain was General Banks. He was first attacked and 
beaten ; after which Lee fell upon Pope on the old field of Bull 
Run, and put the army to flight. Pope fell back to Washing- 
ton, where his forces were united with those of McClellan. 
Pushing northward, Lee next crossed the Potomac and entered 
Maryland. But he was overtaken by McClellan at Antietam 
Creek, near Sharpsburg, where, September 17, 1862, a great 
battle was fought, after which Lee went back to Virginia. 

McClellan was now removed and the command of the army 
given to General Burnside. He was as reckless as McClellan 
was cautious, and on December 13 threw his army against the 
Confederates posted at Fredericksburg Heights and was beaten 
with dreadful slaughter. Thus at the end of 1862 Richmond 
was not captured, and the two armies went into winter quarters 
with the Rappahannock River between them. 

441. Emancipation of the Slaves. — More than two years had 
now passed since South Carolina had seceded, and during this 

1 The " Seven Days' Battles" are these and one fought June 25. 



WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865 395 

time a great change had taken place in the feeling of the 
North towards slavery. When Lincoln was inaugurated, very 
few people wanted the slaves emancipated. But two years of 
bloody fighting had convinced the North that the Union could 
not exist part slave, part free. As Lincoln said in his speech 
at Springfield in 1858, "It must be all one thing, or all the 
other." Seeing that the people now felt as he did, Lincoln, in 
1862 (March 6), asked Congress to agree to buy the slaves of 
the loyal slave states, and urged the members of Congress 
from those states to advise their constituents to set free 
their slaves and receive $300 apiece for them. This they 
would not do; whereupon he decided to act upon his own 
authority, and declared all slaves within the lines of the Con- 
federacy to be freemen. 

For this he had two good reasons: 1. So far the war had 
been one for the preservation of the Union. By making it a 
war for union and freedom the North would become more 
earnest than ever. 2. The rulers of England, who wanted 
Southern cotton, were only waiting for a pretext to acknowledge 
the independence of the South. If, however, the North engaged 
in a war for the abolition of slavery, the people of England 
would not allow the independence of the Confederacy to be 
acknowledged by their rulers. 

The time to make such a declaration was after some victory 
gained by the Union army. When McClellan and Lee stood 
face to face at Antietam, Lincoln therefore " vowed to God " 
that if Lee were defeated he would issue the proclamation. 
Lee was defeated, and, on September 22, 1862, the proclama- 
tion came forth declaring that if the Confederate States did 
not return to their allegiance before January 1, 1863, " all per- 
sons held as slaves" within the Confederate lines "shall be 
then, thenceforth, and forever free." The states of course 
did not return to their allegiance, and on January 1, 1863, 
a second proclamation was issued setting the slaves free.^ 

Now, there are three things in connection with the Emanci- 
1 Nicolay and Hay's Life of Lincoln, Vol. VI., Chaps. 6, 8. 



396 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

pation Proclamation which must be understood and remem- 
bered: 

1. Lincoln did not abolish slavery anywhere. He emancipated 

or set free the slaves of certain persons engaged in waging 
war against the United States government. 

2. The Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to any of 

the loyal slave states,-^ nor to such territory as the 
Union army had reconquered.^ In none of these places 
did it free slaves. 

3. Lincoln freed the slaves by virtue of his power as com- 

mander in chief of the army of the United States, " and 
as a fit and necessary war measure." 

442. The Battle of Gettysburg. — After Burnside was de- 
feated at Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, he was removed, 
and General Hooker put in command of the Army of the 
Potomac. Hooker — "Fighting Joe," as he was called — led 
it against Lee, and (May 1-4, 1863) was beaten at Chancel- 
lorsville and fell back. In June Lee again took the offensive, 
rushed down the Shenandoah valley to the Potomac, crossed 
Maryland, and entered Pennsylvania, with the Army of the 
Potomac in pursuit. On reaching Maryland, Hooker was 
removed and General Meade put in command. The opposing 
forces met on the hills at Gettysburg, Penn., and there, July 
1-3, Lee attacked Meade. The contest was a dreadful one; no 
field was ever more stubbornly fought over. About one fourth 
of the men engaged were killed or wounded. But the splendid 
courage of the Union army prevailed : Lee was beaten and re- 
tired to Virginia, where he remained unmolested till the spring 
of 1864. Gettysburg is regarded as the greatest battle of the 
war, and the Union regiments engaged have taken a just pride 
in marking the positions they held during the three awful days 
of slaughter, till the field is dotted all over with beautiful nion- 

1 Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. 

2 Tennessee, thirteen parishes in Louisiana, and seven counties in 
Virginia. 



WAK FOR THE UNION, 18G1-1865 



397 



^4*r*#IMite/ 




Part of the battlefield of Gettysburg 



uments. On the hill back of the village is a great national 
cemetery, at the dedication of which Lincoln delivered his 
famous Gettysburg address. 

443. Vicksburg. — The day after the victory at Gettysburg, 
the joy of the North was yet more increased by the news that 
Vicksburg had surrendered (July 4) to Grant. After the de- 
feat of the Confederate forces at luka and Corinth in 1862, 
the Confederate line passed across northern Mississippi, touched 
the river from Vicksburg to Port Hudson, and then swept off 
to the Gulf. As the capture of these river towns would complete 
the opening of the Mississippi, Grant set out to take Vicks- 
burg. Failing in a direct advance through Mississippi, Grant 
sent a strong force down the river from Memphis, and later 
took command in person. Vicksburg stands on the top of a 
bluff which rises steep and straight 200 feet above the river, 
and had been so fortified that to capture it seemed impossible. 



398 



THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 



But Grant was determined to open the river. On the west 
bank, he cut a canal through a bend, hoping to divert the river 
and get water passage by the town. This failed, and he de- 
cided to cross below the town and attack from the land. To 
aid him in this attempt, Porter ran his gunboats past the 
town one night in April and carried the army over the 
river. Landing on the east bank, Grant won a victory at 

Port Gibson, and 
occupied Grand Gulf. 
Hearing that John- 
ston was coming to 
help Pemberton, 
Grant pushed in be- 
tween them, beat 
Johnston at Jackson, 
and turning west- 
ward, drove Pember- 
ton into Vicksburg, 
and began a regular 
siege. For seven 
weeks he poured in 
shot and shell day 
and night. To live 
in houses became im- 
possible, and the 
women and children 
took refuge in caves. Food gave out, and after every kind of 
misery had been endured till it could be borne no longer, 
Vicksburg was surrendered on July 4. 

Five days later (July 9, 1863), Port Hudson surren- 
dered, and the Mississippi, as Lincoln said, " flowed un vexed 
to the sea." It was open from its source to its mouth, and 
the Confederacy was cut in two. 

444. Driving the Confederates eastward; Chickamauga and 
Chattanooga. — While Grant was besieging Vicksburg, Kose- 
crans by skillful work forced Bragg to retreat from his position 




WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865 399 

south of Murf reesboro ; then in a second campaign he forced 
Bragg to leave Chattanooga and retire into northwestern 
Georgia. Bragg here received more troops, and attacked Rose- 
crans in the Chickamauga valley (September 19 and 20, 1863), 
where was fought one of the most desperate battles of the war. 
So fierce was the onset of the Confederates that the Union 
right wing was driven from the field. But the left wing, 
under General George H. Thomas, a grand character and a 
splendid officer, by some of the best fighting ever seen held the 
enemy in check and saved the army from rout. By his firm- 
ness Thomas won the name of " the Rock of Chickamauga." 

Rosecrans now went back to Chattanooga. Bragg followed, 
and taking position on the hills and mountains which surround 
the town on the east and south, shut in the Union army 
and besieged it. Eor a time it seemed in danger of starva- 
tion. But Hooker was sent from Virginia with more troops ; 
the Army of the Tennessee under Sherman was summoned 
from Vicksburg ; Rosecrans was superseded by Thomas, and 
Grant was put in command of all. Then matters changed. 
The forces under Thomas, moving from their lines, seized some 
low hills at the foot of Missionary Ridge, east of Chattanooga 
(November 23). On the 24th, Hooker carried the Confederate 
works on Lookout Mountain, southwest of the city, in a con- 
flict often called the " Battle above the Clouds " ; and Sherman 
was sent against the northern end of Missionary Ridge, but 
succeeded only in taking an outlying hill. On the 25th Sher- 
man renewed his attack, but failed to gain the main crest, 
whereupon Thomas attacked the Ridge in front of Chattanooga, 
carried the heights, and drove off the enemy. Bragg retreated 
to Dalton, in northwestern Georgia, where the command of his 
army was given to Joseph E. Johnston. 

445. *' Marching through Georgia"; "From Atlanta to the 
Sea." — As the Confederates had thus been driven from the 
Mississippi River, and forced back to the mountains, they had 
but two centers of power left. The one was the army under 
Lee, which, since the defeat at Gettysburg, had been lying 



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402 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

quietly behind the Eapidan and Rappahannock rivers, pro- 
tecting Richmond. The other was the army at Dalton, Ga., 
now under J. E. Johnston. 

Early in the spring of 1864 General U. S. Grant — "Uncon- 
ditional Surrender Grant," as the people called him — was 
made lieutenant general (a rank never before given to any United 
States soldier except Washington and Scott), and put in com- 
mand of all the Federal armies. General Sherman was left 
in command of the military division of the Mississippi. 

Before beginning the campaign, Grant and Sherman agreed 
on a plan. Grant, with the Army of the Potomac, was to drive 
back Lee and take Richmond. Sherman, with the armies of 
Thomas, McPherson, and Schofield, was to attack Johnston 
and push his way into Georgia. Each was to begin his move- 
ment on the same day (May 4, 1864). 

On that day, accordingly, Sherman with 98,000 men marched 
against Johnston, flanked him out of Dalton, and step by 
step through the mountains to Atlanta, fighting all the way. 
Johnston's retreat was masterly. He intended to retreat until 
Sherman's army was so weakened by leaving guards in the 
rear to protect the railroads, over which food and supplies 
must come, that he could fight on equal terms. But Jefferson 
Davis removed Johnston at Atlanta, and put J. B. Hood in 
command. 

Hood, in July, made three furious attacks, was beaten each 
time; abandoned Atlanta in September, and soon after started 
northwestward, in hope of drawing Sherman out of Georgia. 
But Sherman sent Thomas and a part of the army to Tennessee, 
and after following Hood for a time, he returned to Atlanta, 
tearing up the railroads as he went. Then, having partly 
burned the town, in November he started for the sea with 
60,000 of his best veterans. 

The troops went in four columns, covering a belt of sixty miles 
wide, burning bridges, tearing up railroads, living on the coun- 
try as they marched. Early in December the army drew near 
to Savannah ; about the middle of the month (December 13) 



WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865 



403 



Fort McAllister was taken ; and a few days later the city of 
Savannah was occupied. During all this long march to the 
sea, nothing was known in the North as to where Sherman was 







Charleston '^ -MX, 
^,-— ^^i"!. Siunter 

SHERMAN'S MARCH 



TO THE SEA 

SCALE OF MILES 



or what he was doing. Fancy the delight of Lincoln, then, 
when on the Christmas eve of 1864, he received this telegram : 

Savannah, Georgia, December 22, 1864. 
To His Excellency, President Lincoln, Washington, D.C. 

I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with 
one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition ; also about 
twenty-five thousand bales of cotton. 

W. T. Sherman, Major General. 

Sherman had sent the message by vessel to Fort Monroe, 
whence it was telegraphed to Lincoln. 

446. Sherman marches northward. — At Savannah the army 
rested for a month. Sherman tells us in his Memoirs that the 



404 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

troops grew impatient at this delay, and used to call out to him 
as he rode by : " Uncle Billy, I guess Grant is waiting for us 
at Richmond." So he was ; but he did not wait very long, for 
on February 1, 1865, the march was resumed. The way was 
across South Carolina to Columbia, and then into North Caro- 
lina, with their old enemy, J. E. Johnston, in their front. 
Hood, in a rash moment, had besieged Thomas at Nashville ; 
but Thomas, coming out from behind his intrenchments, utterly 
destroyed Hood's army. This forced Davis to put Johnston 
in command of a new army made up of troops taken from the 
seaport garrisons and remnants of Hood's army. In March, 
Sherman reached Goldsboro in North Carolina. 

447. Grant in Virginia. — Meantime Grant had set out from 
Culpeper Courthouse on May 4, 1864, crossed the Rapidan, 
and entered the "Wilderness," a name given to a tract of 
country covered with dense woods of oak and pine and thick 
undergrowth. The fighting was almost incessant. The loss 
of life was frightful ; but he pushed on to Spottsylvania Court- 
house, and thence to Cold Harbor, part of the line of fortifica- 
tions before Richmond. He would, as he said, " fight it out on 
this line if it takes all summer," and went south of Richmond 
and besieged Petersburg. 

448. Early's Raid, 1864. — Lee now sent Jubal Early with 
20,000 soldiers to move down the Shenandoah valley, enter 
Maryland, and threaten Washington. This he did, and after 
coming up to the fortifications of the city, he retreated to 
Virginia. A little later, Early sent his cavalry into Pennsyl- 
vania and burned Chambersburg. 

Grant thought it was time to stop this, and sent Sheridan 
with an army to drive Early out of the Shenandoah valley. 
" It is desirable," said Grant, " that nothing should be left to 
invite the enemy to return." 

Sheridan set out accordingly, and on September 19 he met 
Early in battle at Winchester, and a few days later at Fishers 
Hill, beat him at both places, and sent him whirling up the 
valley. Sheridan followed for a time, and then brought his 



WAR FOR THE UNION, 1801-1865 405 

army back to Cedar Creek, after burning barns, destroying 
crops, and devastating the entire upper valley. 

449. Sheridan's Ride. — And now occurred a famous incident. 
About the middle of October Sheridan went to Washington, 
and while On his way back slept on the night of October 18 at 
Winchester. At 7 a.m. on the 19th he heard guns, but paid no 
attention to the sounds till 9 o'clock, when, as he rode quietly 
out of Winchester, he met a mile from town wagon trains and 
fugitives, and heard that Early had surprised his camp at day- 
light. Dashing up the pike with an escort of twenty men, 
calling to the fugitives as he passed them to turn and face the 
enemy, he met the army drawn up in line eleven miles from 
Winchester. " Far away in the rear," says an old soldier, 
" we heard cheer after cheer. Were reenforcements coming ? 
Yes, Phil Sheridan was coming, and he was a host." Dashing 
down the line, Sheridan shouted, " What troops are these ? " 
'' The Sixth Corps," came back the response from a hundred 
voices. " We are all right," said Sheridan, as he swung his 
old hat and dashed along the line to the right. "Never mind, 
boys, we'll whip them yet. We shall sleep in our old quarters 
to-night." And they did.^ Early was defeated. 

450. Surrender of Lee. — At the beginning of 1865 the situa- 
tion of Lee was desperate, and in February, Alexander H. 
Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, met Lincoln and 
Secretary Seward on a war vessel in Hampton Roads to discuss 
terms of peace. Lincoln demanded three things : 1. That the 
Confederate armies be disbanded and the men sent home. 

2. That the Confederate States submit to the rule of Congress. 

3. That slavery be abolished. These terms were not accepted, 
and the war went on. Sherman marched northward through 
the Carolinas and was reenforced from the coast; every sea- 
port in the Confederacy was soon in Union hands; Sheridan 
finally dispersed Early's troops, and joined Grant before 
Petersburg ; and the lines of Grant's army were drawn closer 
and closer around Petersburg and Richmond. 

1 Read Sheridan's account in his Personal Memoirs^ Vol. II., pp. 66-92. 



406 



THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 



Plainly the end was near. On April 2 Lee announced to 
Davis that both Petersburg and Richmond must be abandoned 
at once. The rams in the James River were immediately 
blown up, and on the morning of April 3 General Weitzel, 
hearing from a negro what was going on, entered Richmond 
and found that Lee was in full retreat. Grant followed, and 
on April 9 forced Lee to surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, 
seventy-five miles west of Richmond. Grant's treatment of 
Lee was most generous. He was not required to give up his 
sword, nor his officers their side arms, nor his men their horses, 




The house in which Lee and Grant arranged the surrender 



which they would need. Grant said, "to work their little 
farms." Each officer was to give his parole not to take up arms 
against the United States "until properly exchanged"; each 
regimental commander was to do the same for his men; and, 
" this done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his 
home." Immediately after this surrender 25,000 rations were 
issued to Lee's men. 

451. End of the Confederacy. — What little was left of the 
Confederacy now went rapidly to pieces. On April 26 John- 
ston surrendered to Sherman near Raleigh, North Carolina. 
A few days later the victorious army started for Richmond, 



WAR FOR THE UNION, 1801-1865 407 

and then went on over battle-scarred Virginia to Washington. 
May 10, Jefferson Davis was captured. When Lee fled from 
Richmond, Davis hurried to Charlotte, N.C., with his cabinet, 
his clerks, and such gold and silver coin as was in the Con- 
federate Treasury. But the surrender of Johnston forced 
Davis to retreat still farther south, till he reached Irwins- 
ville, Ga., where the Union cavalry overtook him. 

452. The Grand Army disbands. — As this was practically the 
end of the Confederacy, the great Union army of citizen soldiers, 
numbering more than 1,000,000 men, was called home from the 
field and disbanded. Before these veterans separated, never 
to meet again with arms in their hands, they were reviewed 
by the President, Congress, and an immense throng of people 
who came to Washington from every part of the loyal states 
to welcome them. During two days (May 23 and 24, 1865) the 
soldiers of Grant and Sherman, forming a column thirty miles 
long, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, and then, with a 
rapidity and quietness that seems almost incredible, scattered 
and went back to their farms, to their shops, to the practice of 
their professions, and to the innumerable occupations of civil 
life. 

Of the Confederates not one was molested, not a soldier was 
imprisoned, not a political leader suffered death. Davis was 
ordered to be imprisoned at Fort Monroe for two years, but 
he was soon released on bail, was never brought to trial, and 
died at New Orleans in 1889. 

SUMMARY 

1. After the election of Lincoln seven states seceded from the Union, 

and formed the " Confederate States of America." 

2. Four other states joined the Confederacy later. 

3. The refusal of the United States to recognize the right to secede led to 

the refusal to give up Federal forts in Charleston harbor. The 
attempt to take Sumter by force led to the appeal to arms. 

4. The line which separated the troops of the two governments ran from 

Chesapeake Bay, across Virginia, and through Kentucky and Mis- 
souri, to New Mexico. 



408 



THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 



8. 



While the Union troops held the Confederates in check on the eastern 
end of the line, they broke through the line in the West, and, aided 
by the Union fleet, opened the Mississippi River. 

The Confederates were thus driven from the Mississippi and forced 
back to the mountains of Georgia. Sherman was sent against them, 
and in 1864 marched eastward through the heart of the Confederacy 
to the Atlantic. 

Marching north from Savannah, across Georgia and South Carolina, 
to Goldsboro in North Carolina, he was now in the rear of the Con- 
federate army in Virginia. 

Grant, meantime, with the Army of the Potomac, had fought a series 
of battles with Lee, and had besieged Richmond and Petersburg ; 
and Sheridan had cleared out the Shenandoah valley. 

Lee was thus forced, early in 1865, to leave Richmond, and while 
retreating westward he was forced to surrender. 



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CHAPTER XXVIII 

WAR ALONG THE COAST AND ON THE SEA 

453. State of our Navy in 1861. — On the day our flag went 
down at Sumter, the navy of the United States consisted of 
ninety vessels of every sort. Fifty of these were sailing 
ships. Forty were propelled by steam. Of the steam fleet 
one was on the Lakes, five were unserviceable, seventeen were 
in foreign parts, and nine laid up in navy yards and out of 
service. Eight steam vessels (one a mere tender) and five 
sailing vessels (a fleet of thirteen) made up the naval force of 
the United States that was available for actual service on 
April 15, 1861. 

454. The Work before the Navy. — The duty of the navy 
was to 

1. Blockade the coast from Norfolk in Virginia to the Eio 

Grande in Texas. 

2. Capture the seaports and forts scattered along this coast. 

3. Acquire control of the sounds and bays, as Chesapeake, 

Albemarle, Pamlico, Mobile, and Galveston. 

4. Assist the army in opening the Mississippi, Arkansas, and 

other rivers. 

5. Destroy all Confederate cruisers and protect the commerce 

of the United States. 

To accomplish this great work, most of the vessels abroad 
were recalled (a slow process in days when no ocean cable 
existed), more were hastily built, and in time 400 merchantmen 
and river steamboats were bought and roughly adapted at the 
navy yards for war service. 

410 



WAR ALONG THE COAST AND ON THE SEA 411 

455. The Blockade of the Southern Coast. — The war on sea 

was opened (April 19-27, 18G1) by two proclamations of Lincoln 
declaring the coast from Virginia to Texas blockaded. This 
meant that armed vessels were to be stationed off the seaports 
of the South, and that no ships from any country were to be 
allowed to go into or out of them. To stop trade with the 
South was important for three reasons : 

1. The South had no ships, no great gun factories, machine 

shops, or rolling mills, and must look to foreign countries 
for military supplies. 

2. The South raised (in 1860) 4,700,000 bales of cotton, almost 

all of which was sold to England and the North, and if 
this cotton should be sent abroad, the South could easily 
buy with it all the guns, ships, and goods she needed. 

3. England was dependent on the South for raw cotton, and 

would sell for it everything the South wanted in exchange. 

The blockade, therefore, was to cut off the trade and supplies 
of the South, and so weaken her. But as England, a great com- 
mercial nation, wanted her cotton, it was certain that unless 
the blockade were rigorous and close, cotton would be smuggled 
out and supplies sent in. 

456. Blockade Runners. — This is just what did happen. 
The blockade in the course of a year was made close, by ships 
stationed off the ports, sounds, and harbors. In some places 
the hulks of old whalers were loaded with stone and sunk in 
the channels, and to get in or out became more difficult. As a 
result the price of cotton fell to eight cents a pound in the South 
(because there was nobody to buy it) and rose to fifty cents a 
pound in England (because so little was to be had). Then 
" running the blockade " became a regular business. Goods of all 
sorts were brought from England to Nassau in the West Indies, 
where they would be put on board of vessels built to run the 
blockade. These blockade runners were long, low steam vessels 
which drew only a few feet of water and had great speed. 
Their hulls were but a few feet out of water and were painted 



412 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

a dull gray. Their smokestacks could be lowered to the deck, 
and they burned anthracite coal, which made no smoke. They 
would leave Nassau at such a time as would enable them to 
be off Wilmington, N.C., or some other Southern port, on a 
moonless night with a high tide, and then, making a dash, 
would run through the blockading vessels. Once in port, they 
would take a cargo of cotton, and would run out on a dark 
night or during a storm. During the war, 1504 vessels of 
all kinds were captured or destroyed.^ 

457. The Commerce Destroyers. — While the North was thus 
busy destroying the trade of the South, the South was busy 
destroying the enormous trade of the North. When the war 
opened, our merchant ships were to be seen in every port of 
the world, and against these were sent a class of armed vessels 
known as "commerce destroyers," whose business it was to 
cruise along the great highways of ocean commerce, keep a 
sharp lookout for our merchantmen, and burn all they could 
find. The first of these commerce destroyers to get to sea was 
the jSumteVy which ran the blockade at the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi in June, 1861, and within a week had taken seven 
merchantmen. So important was it to capture her that seven 
cruisers were sent in pursuit. But she escaped them all till 
January, 1862, when she was shut up in the port of Gibraltar 
and was sold to prevent capture. 

458. The Trent Affair, i86i. — One of the vessels sent in 
pursuit of the Sumter was the San Jacinto, commanded by 
Captain Wilkes. While at Havana, he heard that two com- 
missioners of the Confederate government, James M. Mason 
and John Slidell, sent out as commissioners to Great Britain 
and France, were to sail for England in the British mail steamer 
Trent; and, deciding to capture them, he took his station in the 
Bermuda Channel, and (November 8, 1861) as the Trent came 
steaming along, he stopped and boarded her, and carried off 
Mason and Slidell and their secretaries. This he had no right 
to do. It was exactly the sort of thing the United States had 

1 Read T. E. Taylor's Bunning the Blockade, pp. 16-32, 44-54. 



WAR AL0N6 THE COAST AND ON THE SEA 413 

protested against ever since 1790, and had been one of the 
causes of war with Great Britain in 1812. The commissioners 
were therefore released, placed on board another English 
vessel, and taken to England. The conduct of Great Britain 
in this matter was most insulting and warlike, and nothing 
but the justice of her demand prevented war.^ 

459. The Famous Cruisers Florida, Alabama, Shenandoah. — 
The loss of the Sumter was soon made good by the appearance 
on the sea of a fleet of commerce destroyers all built and pur- 
chased in England with the full knowledge of the English 
government. The first of these, the Florida, was built at 
Liverpool, was armed at an uninhabited island in the Bahamas, 
and after roving the sea for more than a year was captured 
by the United States cruiser Wachusett in the neutral harbor 
of Bahia in Brazil. Her capture was a shameful violation of 
neutral waters, and it was ordered that she be returned to 
Brazil ; but she was sunk by " an unforeseen accident '^ in Hamp- 
ton Eoads.^ 

The next to get afloat was the Alabama. She was built at 
Liverpool with the knowledge of the English government, and 
became in time one of the most famous and successful of all the 
commerce destroyers. During two years she cruised unharmed 
in the North Atlantic, in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean 
Sea, along the coast of South America, and even in the Indian 
Ocean, destroying in her career sixty-six merchant vessels. At 
last she was found in the harbor of Cherbourg (France) by 
the Kearsarge, to which Captain Semmes of the Alabama sent 
a challenge to flght. Captain Winslow accepted it ; and June 
19, 1864, after a short and gallant engagement, the Alabama 
was sunk in the English Channel.^ 

The Shenandoah, another cruiser, was purchased in England 

1 Harris's The Trent Affair. 

2 Bullock's Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe^ Vol. I., 
pp. 152-224. 

3 Ihich, Vol. I., pp. 225-294. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War^ 
Vol. IV., pp. 600-625. 

McM. Hist.— 23 



414 



THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 



and armed at a barren island near Madeira. Tlience she went 
to Australia, and cruising northward in the Pacific to Bering 
Strait, destroyed the China-bound clippers and the whaling 
fleet. At last, hearing of the downfall of the Confederacy, she 
went back to England.^ 

460. The Ironclads. — To blockade the coast and cut off 
trade was most important, but not all that was needed. Here 
and there were seaports which must be captured and forts 
which must be destroyed, bays and sounds, and great rivers 

coming down from the 
interior, which it was 
very desirable to secure 
control of. The Confed- 




The U. S. steamer Merrimac 



Remodeling the Merrimac 

erates were fully aware of 

this, and as soon as they 

could, placed on the waters 

of their rivers and harbors vessels new to naval warfare, called 

ironclad rams. These were steamboats cut down and made 

suitable for naval purposes, and then covered over with iron 

rails or thick iron plates. The most famous of them was the 

Merrimac. 

461. The Merrimac or Virginia. — When Sumter was fired 
on and the war began, the United States held the great navy 
yard and naval depot at Portsmouth, Va., where were eleven 
war vessels of various sorts, and immense quantities of guns 
and stores and ammunition. But the officer in charge, know- 

1 Bullock's Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe, Vol. II., 
pp. 131-163. 



WAR ALONG THE COAST AND ON THE SEA 415 



ing that Virginia was about to secede, and fearing that the yard 
would be seized by the Confederates, sank most of the ships, 
set fire to the buildings, and abandoned the place. The Con- 
federates at once took possession, raised the vessels, and out of 
one of them, a steamer called the Merrwiac, made an ironclad 
ram, which they renamed the Virginia and sent forth to de- 
stroy the wooden vessels of the United States then assembled in 
Chesapeake Bay. 

Well knowing that he could not be harmed by any of our 
war ships, the commander of the Merrimac went leisurely to 
work and began (March 8, 1862) by attacking the Cumberland. 
In her day the Cumherland had been as fine a frigate as ever 
went to sea ; but the days of wooden ships were gone, and she 
was powerless. Her shot glanced from the sides of the Merri- 
mac like so many peas, while the new monster, coming on under 
steam, rammed her in the side and made a great hole through 
which the water poured. Even then the commander of the 
Cumherland would not surrender, but fought his ship till she 
filled and sank with her guns booming and her flag flying. 
After sinking the Cumherland, the Merrimac attacked the 
Congress, forced her to surrender, set her on fire, and, as 
darkness was then coming on, went back to the shelter of 
the Confederate batteries. 

462. The Monitor. — Early the next day the Merrimac 
sailed forth to finish the work of destruction, and picking out 
the Minnesota, which was 
hard and fast in the mud, 
bore down to attack her. 
When lo ! from beside the 
Minnesota started forth 
the most curious-looking 
craft ever seen on water. 
It was the famous Moni- 
tor, designed by Captain 
John Ericsson, to whose inventive genius we owe the screw 
propeller and the hot-air engine. She consisted of a small iron 



r^S. 



y 




Monitor, side and deck plan 



416 



THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 



hull, on top of wliicli rested a boat-shaped raft covered with 
sheets of iron which made the deck. On top of the deck, which 
was about three feet above the water, was an iron cylinder, or 
turret, which revolved by machinery and carried two guns. 
She looked, it was said, like " a cheesebox mounted on a raft." 





'OR^s^ ^ 1 I II V^ S 



The Monitor was built at 
New York, and was intended 
for harbor defense ; but the 
fact that the Confederates 
were building a great iron- 
clad at Norfolk made it necessary to send her to Hampton 
Roads. The sea voyage was a dreadful one ; again and again 
she was almost wrecked, but she weathered the storm, and 
early on the evening of March 8, 1862, entered Hampton 
Roads, to see the waters lighted up by the burning Congress 
and to hear of the sinking of the Cumberland. Taking her 



WAR ALONG THE COAST AND ON THE SEA 



417 



place beside the Minnesota^ she waited for the dawn, and about 
eight o'clock saw the MerrlmaG coming toward her, and, start- 
ing out, began the greatest naval battle of modern times. 
When it ended, neither ship was disabled; but they were the 
masters of the seas, for it was now proved that no wooden 
ships anywhere afloat could liarni them. The days of wooden 
naval vessels were over, and all the nations of the world were 




An encounter at close range 

forced to build their navies anew. The Merrimac withdrew 
from the fight ; when the Confederates evacuated Norfolk, they 
destroyed her (May, 1862). The Monitor sank in a storm at 
sea while going to Beaufort, N.C. (January, 1863).^ 

463. Capture of the Coast Forts and Waterways. — Operations 
along the coast were begun in August, 1861, by the capture 
of the forts at the mouth of Hatteras Inlet, JST.C, the en- 
trance to Pamlico Sound ; and by the capture of Port Koyal 
in November. A few months later (early in 1862) control of 
1 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. I., pp. 719-750. 



418 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

Pamlico and Albemarle sounds was secured by the capture of 
Roanoke Island, Elizabeth City, and Newbern, all in North 
Carolina, and of Fort Macon, which guarded the entrance to 
Beaufort harbor. McClellan's capture of Yorktown in May, 
1862, was soon followed by the hasty evacuation of Norfolk by 
the Confederate forces, so that at the end of the first year of 
the war most of the seacoast from Norfolk to the Gulf was 
in Union hands. 

Along the Gulf coast naval operations resulted in opening 
the lower Mississippi and capturing New Orleans in April 
(p. 392), and Pensacola in May, 1862. 

In April, 1863, a naval attack on Charleston was planned, but 
was carried no farther than a severe battering of Fort Sumter. 
In August, 1864, Admiral Farragut led his fleet past Forts 
Morgan and Gaines, that guarded the entrance of Mobile Bay, 
captured the Confederate fleet and took the forts. Mobile, 
however, was not taken till April, 1865, just as the Confederacy 
reached its end. Fort Fisher, which commanded the entrance 
to Cape Fear River, on which stood Wilmington, the great 
port of entry for blockade runners, fell before the attack of a 
combined land and naval force in January, 1865. 

SUMMARY 

1. The naval operations of the war opened with the blockade of the 

coast of the- Confederate States. 

2. This was necessary in order to prevent cotton, sugar, and tobacco 

being sent abroad in return for materials of war. 

3. As a result blockade running was carried on to a great extent. 

4. In order to destroy our commerce a fleet of cruisers was built in Eng- 

land, purchased and manned by the Confederate government. They 
inflicted very serious damage. 

5. But the great event of the war w^as the battle between the ironclads 

Monitor and Merrimac, which marked the advent of the iron- 
armored war ship. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE COST OF THE WAR 

464. The Cost in Money. — When Fort Sumter was fired on 
in 1861 and Lincoln made his call for volunteers, the national 
debt was $90,000,000, the annual revenue was $41,000,000, 
and the annual expenses of the government $66,000,000. As 
the expenses were vastly increased by the outbreak of war, it 
became necessary to get more money. To do this. Congress, 
when it met in July, 1861, began a financial policy which must 
be described if we are to understand the later history of our 
country. 

465. Power to raise Money. — The Constitution gives Con- 
gress power 

1. "To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises." 

2. " To borrow money on the credit of the United States." 

3. To apportion direct taxes among the several states according 

to their population. 

466. Raising Money by Taxation ; Internal Revenue. — Exer- 
cising these powers. Congress in 1861 increased the duties on 
articles imported, laid a direct tax of $20,000,000, and imposed 
a tax of three per cent on all incomes over $800. The returns 
were large, but they fell far short of the needs of the govern- 
ment, and in 1862 an internal revenue system was created. 
Taxes were now imposed on spirits and malt liquors ; on manu- 
factured tobacco ; on trades, professions, and occupations ; till 
almost everything a man ate, drank, wore, bought, sold, or 
owned was taxed. The revenue collected from such sources 
between 1862 and 1865 was $780,000,000. 

419 



420 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

467. Raising Money *' on the Credit of the United States." — 

Money raised by internal revenue and the tariff was largely 
used to pay current expenses and the interest on the national 
debt. The great war expenses were met by borrowing money 
in two ways : 

1. By selling bonds. 

2. By issuing " United States notes." 

468. The Bonded and Interest-paying Debt. — The bonds were 
obligations by which the government bound itself to pay the 
holder the sum of money specified in the bond at the end of a 
certain period of years, as twenty or thirty or forty. Mean- 
time the holder was to be paid interest at the rate of five, 
six, or seven per cent a year. Between July 1, 1861, and 
August 31, 1865, when our national debt was greatest, 
$1,109,000,000 worth of bonds had been sold to the people 
and the money used for war purposes. 

469. United States Notes. — The United States notes were of 
two kinds : those which bore interest, and those which did not. 
Those bearing interest passed under various names, and by 
1866 amounted to $577,000,000. 

United States notes bearing no interest were the " old de- 
mand notes," the "greenbacks," the "fractional currency," 
and the "national bank notes." 

The greenbacks (a name given them from the green color 
of their backs) were authorized early in 1862, were in denomi- 
nations from $1 up, bore no interest, were legal tender in 
payment of all debts, public and private, except duties on 
imports and interest on the public debt. In time $450,000,000 
were authorized to be issued, and in 1864, $449,000,000 were 
in circulation. 

470. Fractional Currency. — The issue of the demand notes 
in 1861, and the fact, apparent to every one, that Congress 
must keep on issuing paper money, led the state banks to sus- 
pend specie payment in December, 1861. As a consequence, 
the 3, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cent silver pieces (and of course all 



THE COST OF THE WAR 421 

the gold) disappeared from circulation. This left the people 
without small change, and for a time they were forced to pay 
their car fare and buy their newspapers and make change with 
postage stamps and " token " pieces of brass and copper, which 
passed from hand to hand as cents. Indeed, one act of Con- 
gress, in July, 1862, made it lawful to receive postage stamps 
(in sums under $5) in payment of government dues. But 
in March, 1863, another step was taken, and an issue of 
$50,000,000 in paper fractional currency was authorized. 

471. The National Banking System. — Yet another financial 
measure to aid the government was the creation of national 
banks. In 1863 Congress established the office of "Comp- 
troller of the Currency," and authorized him to permit the 
establishment of banking associations. Each must consist of 
hot less than five persons, must have a certain capital, and 
must deposit with the Treasury Department at Washington 
government bonds equal to at least one third of its capital. 
The Comptroller was then to issue to each association bank 
notes not exceeding in value ninety per cent of the face value 
of the bonds. It was supposed that the state banks, which 
then issued $150,000,000 in 7000 kinds of bank notes, would 
take advantage of the law, become national banks, and use 
this national money, which would pass all over the coun- 
try. This would enable the government to sell the banks 
$150,000,000 and more of bonds. But the state banks did 
not do so till 1865, when a tax of ten per cent was laid on 
the amount of paper money each state bank issued. Then, to 
get rid of the tax, hundreds of them bought bonds and be- 
came national banks. 

472. The National Debt and State Expenditures. — On the 
31st of August, 1865, the national debt thus created reached 
its highest figure, and was in round numbers $2,845,000,000. 

Besides the debt incurred by the national government, there 
were heavy expenditures by the states, and we might say by 
almost every city and town, amounting to $468,000,000. 
But even when the war ended, the outlay on account of 



422 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

the war did not cease. Each year there was interest to pay 
on the bonded debt, and pensions to be given to disabled 
soldiers and sailors, and to the widows and orphans of men 
killed, and claims for damages of all sorts to be allowed. 
Between July 1, 1861, and June 30, 1879, the expenditure 
of the government growing out of the war amounted to 
$6,190,000,000. 

Many men who served in the army made great personal 
sacrifices. They were taken away from some useful employ- 
ment, from their farms, their trades, tl^ir business, or their 
professions. What they might have earned or accomplished 
during the time of service was so much loss. 

473. The Cost in Human Life. — While the war was raging, 
Lincoln made twelve calls for volunteers, to serve for periods 
varying from 100 days to three years. The first was the 
famous call of April 15, 1861, for 75,000 three-months men; 
the last was in December, 1864. When the numbers of 
soldiers thus summoned from their homes are added, we find 
that 2,763,670 were wanted and 2,772,408 responded. This 
does not mean that 2,770,000 different men were called into 
service or were ever at any one time under arms. Some 
served for three months, others for six months, a year, or 
three years. Very often a man would enlist and when 
his term was out would reenlist. The largest number in ser- 
vice at any time was in April, 1865. It was 1,000,516, of 
whom 650,000 were fit for service. In 1865, 800,000 were 
mustered out between April and October. 

Of those who gave their lives to preserve the Union, 67,000 
were killed in battle, 43,000 died of wounds, and 230,000 of 
disease and other causes. In round numbers, 360, 000 men 
gave up their lives in defense of the Union. How many 
perished in the Confederate army cannot be stated, but the 
loss was quite as large as on the Union side; so that it is safe 
to say that more than 700,000 men were killed in the war.^ 

1 A table giving the size of the armies and the loss of life will be found 
in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. IV., pp. 767-768. 



THE COST OF THE WAR 423 

474. Suffering in the South. — The South raised all the cot- 
, ton, nearly all the rice and tobacco, and one third of the Indian 

corn grown in our country, and depended on Europe and the 
North for manufactured goods. But when the North, in 1861 
and 1862, blockaded her ports and cut off these supplies, her 
distress began. Brass bells and brass kettles were called for to 
be melted- and cast into cannon, and every sort of fowling piece 
and old musket was pressed into service and sent to the troops 
in the field. As money could not be had, treasury notes were 
issued by the million, to be redeemed " six months after the 
close of the war." Planters were next pledged to loan the 
government a share of the proceeds of their cotton, receiving 
bonds in return. But the blockade was so rigorous that very 
little cotton could get to Europe. When this failed, provi- 
sions for the army were bought with bonds and with paper 
money issued by the states. 

This steady issue of paper money, with nothing to redeem 
it, led to its rapid decrease in value. In 1864 it took $40 in 
Confederate paper money to buy a yard of calico. A spool of 
thread cost $20; a ham, $150; a pound of sugar, $75; and a 
barrel of flour, $1200. 

475. Makeshifts. — Thrown on their own resources, the 
Southern people became home manufacturers. The inner 
shuck of Indian corn was made into hats. Knitting became 
fashionable. Homespun clothing, dyed with the extract of 
black-walnut bark or wild indigo or swamp maple or elder- 
berries, was worn by everybody. Barrels and boxes which 
had been used for packing salt fish and pork were soaked in 
water, which was evaporated for the sake of the salt thus 
extracted. Eye or wheat roasted and ground became a sub- 
stitute for coffee, and dried raspberry leaves for tea. 

Quite as desperate were the shifts to which the South was 
put for soldiers. At first every young man was eager to rush 
to the front. But as time passed, and the great armies of the 
North were formed, it became necessary to force men into the 
ranks, to "conscript" them; and in 1862 an act of the Con- 



424 THE LONG STRUGGLE WITH SLAVERY 

federate Congress made all males from eighteen to thirty-five 
subject to military duty. In September, 1862, all men from 
eighteen to forty-five, and later from sixteen to sixty, were 
subject to conscription. The slaves, of course, worked on the 
fortifications, drove teams, and cooked for the troops. 

476. Cost to the South. — Thus drained of her able-bodied 
population, the South went rapidly to rack and ruin. Crops 
fell off, property fell into decay, business stopped, railroads 
were ruined because men could not be had to keep them in 
repair, and because no rails could be obtained. The loss in- 
flicted by this general and widespread ruin can never be even 
estimated. Cotton, houses, property of every sort, was de- 
stroyed to prevent capture by the Union forces. On every 
battlefield incalculable damage was done to woods, villages, 
farmhouses, and crops. Bridges were burned ; cities, such as 
Eichmond, Atlanta, Columbia, Charleston, were well-nigh de- 
stroyed by fire; thousands of miles of railroad were torn up and 
ruined. The loss entailed by the emancipation of the slaves, 
supposing each negro worth $500, amounts to $2,000,000,000. 

SUMMARY 

1. When the war opened, and the army and navy were called into the 

field, Congress proceeded to raise money by three methods : A. In- 
creasing taxation. B. Issuing bonds. C. Issuing paper money. 

2. Taxation was in three forms : A. Direct tax. B. Tariff duties. C. In- 

ternal revenue, which included a vast number of taxes. 

3. Paper money consisted of treasury notes, United States notes (green- 

backs), fractional currency. 

4. Besides the cost to the nation, there was the cost to the states, counties, 

cities, and towns for bounties, and in aid of the war in general ; and 
the cost to individuals. 

6. There is again the cost produced by the war and still being paid as 
pensions, care of national cemeteries, etc., and interest on the pub- 
lic debt. 

6. The cost in human life was great to both North and South ; there was 
also a destruction of property and business, the money value of 
which cannot be estimated. 



*'THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION OF INDESTRUC- 
TIBLE states:' 

CHAPTER XXX 

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH 

477 The Reelection of Lincoln. — While the war was still 
raging, the time came, in 1864, for the nomination of candi- 
dates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency. The situation 
was serious. On the one hand was the Democratic party, 
denouncing Mr. Lincoln, insisting thai: the war was a failure, 
and demanding peace at any price. On the other hand was a 
large faction of the Republican party, finding fault with Mr. 
Lincoln because he was not severe enough, because he had 
done things they thought the Constitution did not permit him 
to do, and because he had fixed the conditions on which people 
in the so-called seceding states might send representatives 
and senators to Congress. Between these two was a party 
made up of Republicans and of war Democrats, who insisted 
that the Union must be preserved at all costs. These men 
held a convention, and dropping the name " Republicans " 
for the time being, took that of "National Union party," and 
renominated Lincoln. Eor Vice President they selected An- 
drew Johnson, a Union man and war Democrat from Ten- 
nessee. 

The dissatisfied or Radical Republicans held a convention 
and nominated John C. Fremont and General John Cochrane. 
They demanded one term for a President; the confiscation of 
the land of rebels ; the reconstruction of rebellious states by 

425 



426 "THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION" 

Congress, not by the President; vigorous war measures; and 
the destruction of slavery forever. 

The Democrats nominated General George B. McClellan and 
George H.Pendleton. The platform demanded "a cessation 
of hostilities with a view to a convention of the states,'* and 
described the sacrifice of lives and treasure in behalf of Union 
as " four years of failure to restore the Union by the experi- 
ment of war." McClellan, in his letter of acceptance, repudi- 
ated both of these sentiments. The platform called for peace 
first, and then union if possible. McClellan said union first, 
and then peace. " No peace can be permanent without union." 
The platform said the war was a failure. McClellan said, '' I 
could not look in the faces of my gallant comrades of the 
army and navy . . . and tell them that their labors and the 
sacrifice of so many of our slain and wounded brethren had 
been in vain." 

The result was never in doubt. By September Fremont and 
Cochrane both withdrew, and in November Lincoln and John- 
son were elected, and on March 4, 1865, were sworn into office. 

478. The Murder of Lincoln. — By that time the Confederacy 
was doomed. Sherman had made his march to the sea; 
Savannah and Charleston were in Union hands, and Lee hard 
pressed at Eichmond. April 9 he surrendered, and on April 
14, 1865, the fourth anniversary of the evacuation of Fort Sumter, 
Anderson, now a major general, visited the fort which he had 
so gallantly defended, and in the presence of the army and 
navy raised the tattered flag he pulled down in 1861. 

That night Lincoln went to Ford's Theater in Washington, 
and while he was sitting quietly in his box, an actor named 
John Wilkes Booth came in and shot him through the head, 
causing a wound from which the President died early next 
morning. His deed done, the assassin leaped from the box to 
the stage, and shouting, " Sic semper tyrannis " (So be it al- 
ways to tyrants), the motto of Virginia, made his escape in 
the confusion of the moment, and mounting a horse, rode away. 

The act of Booth was one result of a conspiracy, the details 




RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH 427 

of which were soon discovered and the criminals punished. 
Booth was hunted by soldiers and shot in a barn in Virginia. 
His accomplices were either hanged or imprisoned for life.^ 

479. Andrew Johnson, President. — Lincoln had not been 
many hours dead when Andrew Johnson, as the Constitution 
provides, took the oath of office and became 
President of the United States. Before him 
lay the most gigantic task ever given to any 
President. 

480. Reconstruction. — To dispose of the 

Confederate soldiers and politicians was an 

easy matter; but to decide what to do with 

the Confederate states proved most difficult. 

Lincoln had always held that they could not 

secede. If they could not secede, they had 

J . Andrew Johnson 

never been out of the Union, and if they 

had never been out of the Union, they were entitled, as of old, 

to send senators and representatives to Congress. 

But whether the states had or had not seceded, the old state 
governments of 1861, and the relations these governments once 
held with the Union, were destroyed by the so-called secession, 
and it was necessary to define some way by which they might 
be reestablished, or, as it was called, " reconstructed." 

Toward the end of 1863, accordingly, when the Union army 
had acquired possession of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisi- 
ana, Lincoln issued his ''Amnesty Proclamation" and began 
the work of reconstruction. He promised, in the first place, 
that, with certain exceptions, which he mentioned, he would 
pardon^ every man who should lay down his arms and swear to 
support and obey the Constitution, and the Emancipation Proc- 
lamation. He promised, in the second place, that whenever, in 
any state that had attempted secession, voters equal in num- 

1 The best account of the murder of Lincoln is given in " Four Lincoln 
Conspiracies" in the Century Magazine for April, 1896. 

2 The Constitution gives the President power to pardon all offenses 
against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 



428 "THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION" 

ber to one tenth of those who in 1860 voted for presidential 
electors, should take this oath and organize a state govern- 
ment, he would recognize it; that is, he would consider the 
state " reconstructed," loyal, and entitled to representation in 
Congress. 

Following out this plan, the people of Arkansas, Tennessee, 
and Louisiana made reconstructed state governments which 
Lincoln recognized. But here Congress stepped in, refused to 
seat the senators from these states, and made a plan of its 
own, which Lincoln vetoed. 

48L Johnson's ** My Policy " Plan of Reconstruction. — So the 
matter stood when Lee and Johnston surrendered, when Davis 
was captured, and the Confederacy fell to pieces. All the laws 
enacted by the Confederate Congress at once became null and 
void. Taxes were no longer collected ; letters were no longer 
delivered ; Confederate money had no longer any value. Even 
the state governments ceased to have any authority. Bands 
of Union cavalry scoured the country, capturing such gov- 
ernors, political leaders, and prominent men as could be found, 
and striking terror into others who fled to places of safety. In 
the midst of this confusion all civil government ended. To 
reestablish it under the Constitution and laws of the United 
States was, therefore, the first duty of the President, and he 
began to do so at once. First he raised the blockade, and 
opened the ports of the South to trade ; then he ordered the 
Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of the Interior, the 
Postmaster-general, the Attorney-general, to see that the taxes 
were collected, that letters were delivered, tha.t the courts of 
the United States were opened, and the laws enforced in all 
the Southern States ; finally, he placed over each of the unre- 
constructed states a temporary or provisional governor. These 
governors called conventions of delegates elected by such white 
men as were allowed to vote, and these conventions did four 
things : 1. They declared the ordinances of secession null and 
void. 2. They repudiated every debt incurred in supporting 
the Confederacy, and promised never to pay one of them. 



KECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH 429 

3, They abolished slavery within their own bounds. 4. They 
ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which 
abolished slavery forever in the United States. 

482. The Thirteenth Amendment. — This amendment was 
sent out to the states by Congress in February, 1865, and was 
necessary to complete the work begun by the Emancipation 
Proclamation. That proclamation merely set free the slaves 
in certain parts of the country, and left the right to buy 
more untouched. Again, certain slave states (Delaware, Mary- 
land, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri) had not seceded, 
and in them slavery still existed. In order, therefore, to 
abolish the institution of slavery in every state in the Union, 
an amendment to the Constitution was necessary, as many of 
the states could not be relied on to abolish it within their 
bounds by their own act. The amendment was formally pro- 
claimed a part of the Constitution on December 18, 1865.^ 

483. Treatment of the Freedmen in the South. — Had the South- 
ern legislatures stopped here, all would have been well. But 
they went on, and passed a series of laws concerning vagrants, 
apprentices, and paupers, which kept the negroes in a state of 
involuntary servitude, if not in actual slavery. 

To the men of the South, who feared that the ignorant 
negroes would refuse to work, these laws seemed to be neces- 
sary. But by the men of the North they were regarded as 
signs of a determination on the part of Southern men not to 
accept the abolition of slavery. When, therefore. Congress 
met in December, 1865, the members were very angry because 
the President had reconstructed the late Confederate states in 
his own way without consulting Congress, and because these 
states had made such severe laws against the negroes. 

1 Before an amendment proposed by Congress can become a part of the 
Constitution, it must be accepted or ratified by the legislatures of three 
fourths of all the states. In 1865 there were thirty-six states in the 
Union, and of these, sixteen free, and eleven slave states ratified the 
Thirteenth Amendment, and so made it part of the Constitution. When 
an amendment has been ratified by the necessary number of states, the 
President states the fact in a proclamation. 
McM. Hist. — 24 



430 "THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION" 

484. Congressional Plan of Reconstruction. — As soon as 
the two houses were organized, the President and his work 
were ignored, the senators and representatives from the eleven 
states that had seceded were refused seats in Congress, and a 
series of acts were passed to protect the freedmen. 

One of these, enacted in March, 1866, was the " Civil Rights " 
Bill, which gave negroes all the rights of citizenship and per- 
mitted them to sue for any of these rights (when deprived of 
them) in the United States courts. This was vetoed ; but Con- 
gress passed the bill over the veto. Now, a law enacted by 
one Congress can, of course, be repealed by another, and lest 
this should be done, and the freedmen be deprived of their 
civil rights, Congress (June, 1866) passed the Fourteenth 
Amendment to the Constitution, and made the ratification of it 
by the Southern States a condition of readmittance to Congress. 

Finally, a Freedmen's Bureau Bill, ordering the sale of 
government land to negroes on easy terms, and giving them 
military protection for their rights, was passed over the Presi- 
dent's veto, just before Congress adjourned. 

485. The President abuses Congress. — During the summer, 
Johnson made speeches at Western cities, in which, in very 
coarse language, he abused Congress, calling it a Congress of 
only part of the states ; " a factious, domineering, tyrannical 
Congress," "a Congress violent in breaking up the Union." 
These attacks, coupled with the fact that some of the Southern 
States, encouraged by the President's conduct, rejected the Four- 
teenth Amendment, made Congress, when it met in December, 
1866, more determined than ever. By one act it gave negroes 
the right to vote in the territories and in the District of Colum- 
bia. By another it compelled the President to issue his orders 
to the army through General Grant, for Congress feared that 
he would recall the troops stationed in the South to protect 
the freedmen. But the two important acts were the " Tenure 
of Office Act" and " Reconstruction Act" (March 2, 1867). 

486. The Reconstruction Act. — The Reconstruction Act 
marked out the ten unreconstructed states (Tennessee had been 



RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH 431 

admitted to Congress in March, 1866) into five districts, with 
an army officer in command of each, and required the people 
of each state to make a new constitution giving negroes the 
right to vote, and send tlie constitution to Congress. If Con- 
gress accepted it, and if the legislature assembled under it 
ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, they might send senators 
and representatives to Congress, and not before. 

To these terms six states (North Carolina, South Carolina, 
Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas) submitted, and in 
June, 1868, they were readmitted to Congress. Their ratifica- 
tion of the Fourteenth Amendment made it a part of the Con- 
stitution, and in July, 1868, it was declared in force. 

487. ' * Tenure of Office Act' ' ; Johnson impeached. — By this time 
the quarrel between the President and Congress had reached 
such a crisis that the Republican leaders feared he would 
obstruct the execution of the reconstruction law by removing 
important officials chiefly responsible for its administration, 
and putting in their places men who would not enforce it. 
To prevent this. Congress, in 1867, passed the "Tenure of 
Office Act." Hitherto a President could remove almost any 
Federal office holder at pleasure. Henceforth he could only 
suspend while the Senate examined into the cause of suspen- 
sion. If it approved, the man was removed ; if it disapproved, 
the man was reinstated. Johnson denied the right of Congress 
to make such a law, and very soon disobeyed it. 

In August, 1867, he asked Secretary of War Stanton to 
resign, and when the Secretary refused, suspended him and 
made General Grant temporary Secretary. All this was legal, 
but when Congress met, and the Senate disapproved of the sus- 
pension, General Grant gave the office back again to Stanton. 
Johnson then appointed General Lorenzo Thomas Secretary 
of War, and ordered him to seize the^ office. For this, and for 
his abusive speeches about Congress, the House of Represent- 
atives impeached him, and the Senate tried him "for high 
crimes and misdemeanors," but failed by one vote to find him 
guilty. Stanton then resigned his office. 



432 



*'THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION 



SUMMARY 



1. In 1864 the Republican party was split, and one part, taking the 

name of National Union party, renominated Lincoln. The other or 
radical wing, which wanted a more vigorous war policy, nominated 
Fremont and Cochrane. The Democrats declared the war a failure, 
demanded peace, and nominated McClellan and Pendleton. 

2. The gradual conquest of the South brought up the question of the 

relation to the Federal government of a state which had seceded. 

3. Lincoln marked out his own plan of reconstruction in an amnesty 

proclamation. Congress thought he had no right to do this, and 
adopted a plan which Lincoln vetoed. His death left the question 
for Johnson to settle. ^ 

4. Johnson adopted a plan of his own and soon came into conflict with 

Congress. 

5. Congress began by refusing seats to congressmen from states recon- 

structed on Johnson's plan. It then passed, over Johnson's veto, 
a series of bills to protect the freedmen and give them civil rights. 

6. Six states accepted the terms of reconstruction offered, and their sen- 

ators and representatives were admitted to Congress (1868). 

7. Johnson, in 1866, traveled about the West abusing Congress. For 

this, and chiefly for his disregard of the Tenure of Oflice Act, he 
was impeached by the House and tried and acquitted by the Senate. 

States cannot secede ; only some of their 
people were in insurrection. 

Amnesty proclamation. 

Recognizes Arkansas, Tennessee, and 
Louisiana. 

Thirteenth Amendment. 



Lincoln's plan 



Johnson's plan 



Congressional plan 



r Provisional governors. 
I Ratify Thirteenth Amendment. 
I New state constitutions made. 
[ Congressmen chosen. 

Congress refuses them seats. 
Civil Rights Bill. 
Freedmen's Bureau Bill. 
Tenure of Office Act. 
Reconstruction Act. 
I Fourteenth Amendment. 



Johnson vs. Congress . . 



Vetoes 



f Civil Rights Bill. 

1 Freedmen's Bureau Bill. 



Denounces Congress. 
Violates Tenure of Office Act. 
Impeached. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

THE NEW WEST (18G0-1870) 

488. Discovery of Gold near Pikes Peak. — In the summer 
of 1858 news reached the Missouri tliat gold had been found 
on tlie eastern slope of the Eockies, and at once a wild rush 
set in for the foot of Pikes Peak, in what was then Kansas. 







^^^mlJ 



^ 






Crossing the plains 



During 1858 a party from the gold mines of Georgia pitched 
a camp on Cherry Creek and called the place Aurania. Later, 
in the winter, they were joined by General Larimer with a 
party from Leavenworth, Kan., and by them the rude camp 
at Aurania was renamed Denver, in honor of the governor of 
Kansas. In another six months emigrants came pouring in 
from every point along the frontier. Some, providing them- 
selves with great white-covered wagons, drawn by horses, 
oxen, or mules, joined forces for better protection against the 

433 



434 *'THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION" 

Indians, and set out together, making long wagon trains or 
caravans. All were accompanied by men fully armed. Such 
as could not afford a "prairie schooner," as the canvas-covered 
wagon was called, put their worldly goods into handcarts. 

By 1859 Denver was a settlement of 1000 people. They 
needed supplies, and, to meet this demand, the firm of Russell, 
Majors, and Waddell put a daily line of coaches on the road 
from Leavenworth to Denver. This means of communication 
brought so many settlers that by 1860 Denver was a city of 
frame and brick houses, with two theaters, two newspapers, 
and a mint for coining gold. 

489. The Pony Express ; the Overland Stage. — By that time, 
too, the first locomotive had reached the frontier of Kansas. 
But between the Missouri and the Pacific there was still a gap 
of 2000 miles which the settlers demanded should be spanned 
at once, and it was. In 1860 the same firm that sent the first 
stagecoach over the prairie from Leavenworth to Denver, ran 
a pony express from the Missouri to the Pacific. Their plan 
was to start at St. Joseph, Mo., and send the mail on horse- 
back across the continent to San Francisco. As the speed 
must be rapid, there must be frequent relays. Stations were 
therefore established every twenty-five miles, and at them 
fresh horses and riders were kept. Mounted on a spirited 
Indian pony, the mail carrier would set out from St. Joseph 
and gallop at breakneck speed to the first relay station, swing 
himself from his pony, vault into the saddle of another stand- 
ing ready, and dash on toward the next station. At every 
third relay a fresh rider took the mail. Day and night, in 
sunshine and storm, over prairie and mountain, the mail car- 
rier pursued his journey alone. The cost in human life was 
immense. The first riders made the journey of 1996 miles in 
ten days. Next came the Wells and Fargo Express, and then 
the Butterfield Overland Stage Company. 

490. The Union Pacific Railroad ; the Land Grant Roads. — 
Meantime the war opened, and an idea often talked of took 
definite shape. California had scarcely been admitted, in 



THE NEW WEST (1860-1870) 435 

1850, when the plan to bind her firmly to the Union by a great 
railroad, built at national cost, was urged vigorously. By 1856 
the people began to demand it, and in that year the liepublican 
party, and in 1860 both the Republican and Democratic parties, 
pledged themselves to build one. The secession of the South, 
and the presence at Denver of a growing population, made 
the need imperative, and in 1862 Congress began the work. 

Two companies were chartered. One, the Union Pacific, 
was to begin at Omaha and build westward. The other, the 
Central Pacific, was to begin at Sacramento and build east- 
ward till the two met. The Union Pacific was to receive from 
the government a subsidy in bonds of $16,000 for each mile 
built across the plains, $48,000 for each of 150 miles across 
the Rocky Mountains, and $32,000 a mile for the rest of 
the way. It received all told on its 1033 miles $27,226,000. 
The Central Pacific, under like conditions, received for its 
883 miles from San Francisco to Ogden $27,850,000. But the 
liberality of Congress did not end here. Each road was also 
given every odd-numbered section in a strip of public land 
twenty miles wide along its entire length. 

491. Land Grants for Railroads and Canals. — Grants of land 
in aid of such improvements were not new. Between 1827 
and 1860 Congress gave away to canals, roads, and railroads 
215,000,000 acres. This magnificent expanse would make 
seven states as large as Pennsylvania, or three and a half as 
large as Oregon, and is only 6000 acres less than the total area 
of the thirteen original states with their present boundaries. 

Although the roads were chartered in 1862, the work of 
construction was slow at first, and the last rail was not laid 
till May 10, 1869. 

492. The Silver Mines; New States and Territories. —What 
the discovery of gold did for California and Denver, silver and 
the railroad did for the country east of the Sierras. In 1859 
some gold seekers in what was then Utah discovered the rich 
silver mines on Mt. Davidson. Population rushed in, Vir- 
ginia City sprang into existence, the territory of Nevada was 



436 



THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION 



formed in 1861, and in 1864 entered the Union as a state. In 

1861 Colorado was made a territory, and what is now North 
and South Dakota and the land west of them to the Eocky 
Mountain divide became the territory of Dakota. In 1860 and 

1862 precious metals were found in what was then eastern 
Washington ; Lewiston, Idaho City, and the old Hudson Bay 
Company's post of Fort Boise became thriving towns, and in 

1863 the territory of Idaho was formed, with limits including 
what is now Montana and part of Wyoming. Hardly was this 
done when gold was found in a gulch on the Jefferson Fork 
of the Missouri Eiver. Bannack City, Virginia City, and Hel- 
ena were laid out almost immediately, and in 1864 Montana 
was made a territory. In 1863 Arizona was cut off from New 
Mexico, and in 1868 Wyoming was made a territory. 

493. Population in 1870. — Thus in the decade from 1860 to 
1870 gold, silver, and the Pacific Eailroad gave value to the 
American Desert, brought two states (Nevada and Nebraska) 
into the Union, and caused the organization of six new territo- 
ries. More than 1,000,000 people then lived along the line of the 
Union Pacific. Our total population in 1870 was 38,000,000. 



SUMMARY 



2. 



4. 



What the discovery of gold did for California in 1849, it did for the 
"Great American Desert" in 1858. 

The consequences were the founding of Denver, the establishment of 
a stagecoach line from the Missouri to Denver, the pony express to 
the Pacific ; the overland coach ; and the Pacific Railroad. 

Gold, the railroad, and the silver mines led to the organization of Colo- 
rado, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, and the admission 
of Nebraska and Nevada into the Union. 

Other causes led to the organization of Arizona and Dakota. 



New States 
(1860-1870). 



Kansas, 1861, 
West Virginia, 1863. 
Nevada, 1864. 
Nebraska, 1867. 
Total number of 
states in 1870, 37. 



New Territories 
(1860-1870). 



' Colorado, 1861. 
Dakota, 1861. 
Idaho, 1863. 
Arizona, 1863. 
Montana, 1864. 
Wyoming, 1868. 



THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 
CHAPTER XXXII 

POLITICS FROM 1808 TO 1880 

494. New Issues before the People. — Five years had now 
passed since the surrender of Lee, and nine since the firing on 
Sumter. During these years the North, aroused and united 
by the efforts put forth to crush the Confederacy, had entered 
on a career of prosperity and development greater than ever 
enjoyed in the past. With this changed condition came new- 
issues, some growing out of the results of the war, and some 
out of the development of the country. 

495. Amnesty. — In the first place, now that the war was 
over, the people were heartily tired of war issues. Taking 
advantage of this, certain political leaders began, about 1870, 
to demand a " general amnesty " ^ or forgiveness for the rebels, 
and a stoppage of reconstructive measures by Congress. 

496. The National Finances. — A second issue resulting from 
the war was the management of the national finances. Janu- 
ary 1, 1866, the national debt amounted to $2,740,000,000, 
including (1) the bonded debt of $1,120,000,000, and (2) the 
unbonded or floating debt of $1,620,000,000, that part made 
up of "greenbacks," fractional currency, treasury notes, and 
the like. Two problems were thus brought before the people : 

1. What shall be done with the national bonded debt? 

2. How shall the paper money be disposed of and "specie 

payment " resumed ? 

1 In 1868, Lincoln offered "full pardon" to "all persons" except the 
leaders of the "existing rebellion." Johnson, in 1865, again offered 
amnesty, but increased the classes of excepted persons ; and, though in 
the autumn of 1867 he cut down the list, he nevertheless left a great 
many men unpardoned. 

437 



438 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

As to the first question, it was decided to pay the bonds as 
fast as possible; and by 1873 the debt was reduced by more 
than ^500,000,000. 

As to the second question, it was decided to "contract the 
currency " by gathering into the Treasury and there canceling 
the "greenbacks." This was began, and their amount was 
reduced from $449,000,000 in 1864 to $356,000,000 in 1868. 

By that time a large part of the people in the West were 
finding fault with "contraction." Calling in the greenbacks, 
they held, was making money scarce and lowering prices. Con- 
gress, therefore, in 1868 yielded to the pressure, and ordered 
that further contraction should stop and that there should not 
be less than $356,000,000 of greenbacks. 

497. *♦ The Ohio Idea " ; the Greenback Party. — But there was 
still another idea current. To understand this, six facts must 
be remembered. 1. In 1862 Congress ordered the issue of 
certain 5-20 bonds ; that is, bonds that might be paid after five 
years, but must be paid in twenty years. ■ 2. The interest on 
these bonds was made payable " in coin." 3. But nothing was 
said in the bond as to the kind of money in which the prin- 
cipal should be paid. 4. When the greenbacks were issued, 
the law said they should be " lawful money and a legal tender 
for all debts, public and private, within the United States, 
except duties on imports and interest as aforesaid." 5. This 
made it possible to pay the principal of the 5-20 bonds in 
greenbacks instead of coin. 6. Fearing that payment of the 
principal in greenbacks might have a bad effect on future 
loans. Congress, when it passed the next act (March 3, 1863) 
for borrowing money, provided that both principal and interest 
should be paid in coin. 

At that time and long after the war "coin" commanded a 
premium; that is, it took more than 100 cents in paper money 
to buy 100 cents in gold. Anybody who owned a bond could 
therefore sell the coin he received as interest for paper and so 
increase the rate of interest measured in paper money. The 
bonds, again, could not be taxed by any state or municipality. 



POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880 439 

Because of these facts, there arose a demand after the war 
for two things — taxation of the bonds and payment of the 
5-20' s in greenbacks. This idea was so prevalent in Ohio in 
1868 that it was called the "Ohio idea," and its supporters 
were called "Greenbackers." 

498. Opposition to Land Grants to Railroads. — Much fault 
was now found with Congress for giving away such great tracts 
of the public domain. In 1862 a law known as the Home- 
stead Act was passed. By it a farm of 80 or 160 acres was 
to be given to any head of a family, or any person twenty- 
one years old, who was a citizen of the United States or, 
being foreign born, had declared an intention to become a 
citizen, provided he or she lived on the farm and cultivated 
it for five years. Under this great and generous law 103,000 
entries for 12,000,000 acres were made between 1863 and 1870. 
This showed that the people wanted land and was one reason 
why it should not be given to corporations. 

499. The Election of i868. — The questions discussed above 
(pp. 437-439) became the political issues of 1868. 

The Eepublicans nominated Grant and Schuyler Colfax 
and declared for the payment of all bonds in coin; for a 
reduction of the national debt and the rate of interest; and 
for the encouragement of immigration. 

The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour and Francis 
P. Blair, and demanded amnesty; rapid payment of the debt; 
" one currency for the government, and the people, the laborer, 
and the office holder"; the taxation of government bonds; 
and no land grants for public improvements. 

The popular vote was 5,700,000. In the electoral college 
Grant had 214 votes, and Seymour 80. 

500. Troubles in the South; the Ku Klux Klan. — Grant 
and Colfax began their term of office on March 4, 1869, and 
soon found that the reconstruction policy of Congress had not 
been so successful as they could wish, and that the work of 
protecting the freedman in the exercise of his new rights was 
not yet completed. Three states (Virginia, Mississippi, and 



440 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

Texas) had not yet complied with the conditions imposed 
by Congress, and were still refused seats in the House and 
Senate. No sooner had the others complied with the E-econ- 
struction Act of 1867, and given the negro the right to vote, 
than a swarm of Northern politicians, generally of the worst 
sort, went down and, as they said, " ran things." They began 
by persuading the negroes that their old masters were about 
to put them back into slavery, that it was only by electing 
Union men to office that they could remain free ; and having 
by this means obtained control of the negro vote, they were 
made governors and members of Congress, and were sent to 
the state legislature, where, seated beside negroes who could 
neither read nor write, but who voted as ordered, these 
" carpetbaggers," ^ as they were called, ruled the states in 
the interest of themselves rather than in that of the people. 

Now, you must remember that in many of the Southern 
states the negro voters greatly outnumbered the white voters, 
because there were more black men than white men, and be- 
cause many of the whites were still disfranchised ; that is, could 
not vote. When these men, who were property owners and 
taxpayers, found that the carpetbaggers, by means of the 
negro vote, were plundering and robbing the states, they 
determined to prevent the negro from voting, and so drive 
the carpetbaggers from the legislatures. To do this, in many 
parts of the South they formed secret societies, called " The 
Invisible Empire" and "The Ku Klux Klan." Completely 
disguised by masks and outlandish dresses, the members rode 
at night, and whipped, maimed, and even murdered the objects 
of their wrath, who were either negroes who had become local 
political leaders, or carpetbaggers, or "scalawags," as the 
Southern whites who supported the negro cause were called. 

501. The Fifteenth Amendment. — To secure the negro the 
right to vote, and make it no longer dependent on state action, 

1 As the men were not natives of the South, had no property there, and 
were mostly political adventurers, they were called "carpetbaggers," or 
men who owned nothing save what they brought in their carpetbags. 



442 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

a Fifteenth Amendment was passed by Congress in February, 
1869, and, after ratification by the necessary number of states, 
was put in force in March, 1870. As the Ku Klux were viola- 
ting this amendment, by preventing the negroes from voting. 
Congress, in 1871, passed the " Ku Klux " or " Force " Act. 
It prescribed fine and imprisonment for any man convicted of 
hindering, or even attempting to hinder, any negro from vot- 
ing, or the votes, when cast, from being counted. 

502. Rise of the Liberal Republicans. — This legislation and 
the conflicts that grew out of it in Louisiana kept alive the 
old issue of amnesty, and in Missouri split the Republican 
party and led to the rise of a new party, which received the 
name of " Liberal Republicans," because it was in favor of a 
more liberal treatment of the South. From Missouri, the 
movement spread into Iowa, into Kansas, into Illinois, and 
into New Jersey, and by 1872 was serious enough to encour- 
age the leaders to call for a national convention which gathered 
at Cincinnati (May, 1872), and, after declaring for amnesty, 
universal suffrage, civil service reform, and no more land grants 
to railroads, nominated Horace Greeley, of New York, for 
President, and B. Gratz Brown, the Liberal leader of Missouri, 
for Vice President. The nomination of Greeley displeased a 
part of the convention, which went elsewhere, and nomi- 
nated W. S. Groesbeck and F. L. Olmsted. The Republicans 
met at Philadelphia in June, and nominated Grant and Henry 
Wilson. The Democrats pledged their support to Greeley and 
Brown ; but this act displeased so many of the Democratic 
party, that another convention was held, and Charles O'Conor 
and John Quincy Adams were placed in the field. 

503. The National Labor-Reform Party. — From about 1829, 
when the establishment of manufactures, the building of turn- 
pikes and canals, the growth of population, the rise of great 
cities, and the arrival of emigrants from Europe led to the 
appearance of a great laboring class, the workingman had 
been in politics. But it was not till the close of the war that 
labor questions assumed national importance. In 1865 the 



POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880 443 

first National Labor Congress was held at Louisville in Ken- 
tucky. In 1866 a second met at Baltimore ; a third at Chicago 
in 1867; and a fourth at New York in 1868, to which came 
woman suffragists and labor-reform agitators. The next met 
at Philadelphia in 1869 and called for a great National Labor 
Congress which met at Cincinnati in 1870 and demanded 

1. Lower interest on government bonds. 

2. Kepeal of the law establishing the national banks. 

3. Withdrawal of national bank notes. 

4. Issue of paper money " based on the faith and resources 

of the nation," to be legal tender for all debts. 

5. An eight-hour law. 

6. Exclusion of the Chinese. 

7. No land grants to corporations. 

8. Formation of a " National Labor-Reform Party." 

The idea of a new party with such principles was so heartily 
approved, that a national convention met at Columbus, 0., in 
1872, denounced Chinese labor, demanded taxation of govern- 
ment bonds, and nominated David Davis and Joel Parker. 
When they declined, O'Conor was nominated. 

504. Anti-Chinese Movement. — The demand in the Labor 
platform for the exclusion of Chinese makes it necessary to 
say a word concerning " Mongolian labor." 

Chinamen were attracted to our shore by the discovery of 
gold in California, but received little attention till 1852, when 
the governor in a message reminded the legislature that the 
Chinese came not as freemen, but were sent by foreign capital- 
ists under contract; that they were the absolute slaves of 
these masters ; that the gold they dug out of our soil was 
sent to China ; that they could not become citizens ; and that 
they worked for wages so low that no American could compete 
with them. 

The legislature promptly acted, and repeatedly attempted 
to stop their immigration by taxing them. But the Supreme 
Court declared such taxation illegal, whereupon, the state hav- 



444 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

ing gone as far as it oould, an appeal was made to Congress. 
That body was deaf to all entreaties ; but the President 
through Anson Hurlinganu^ in 18G8 secured some now articles 
to the old Chinese treaty of 1858. Henceforth it was to be a 
penal oft'ense to take Chinamen to the United States without 
their free consent. This was not enough, and in order to force 
Congress to act, the question was made a political issue. 

505. The Prohibition Party. — The temperance cause in the 
United States dates back to 1810. But it was not till Maine 
passed a law forbidding the sale of liquor, in 1851, and her 
example was followed by Vermont and Kliode Island in 1852, 
by Connecticut in 1854, and by New York, New Hampshire, 
Michigan, and Iowa, in 1855, that prohibition became an issue. 
The war turned the thoughts of people to other things. But 
after the war, prohibition parties began to appear in several 
states, and in 18G9 steps were taken to unite and found a 
national party. In that year, the Grand Lodges of Good 
Templars held a convention at Oswego, N.Y., and by these 
men a call was issued for a national convention of prohibi- 
tionists to form a political party. The delegates thus sum- 
moned met at Chicago in September, 1869, and there founded 
the "National Prohibition Keform party." The first national 
nominating convention was held at Columbus, 0., in 1872, when 
James Black of Pennsylvania was nominated for President, 
and John Eussell of JNIichigan for Vice President. 

506. Campaign of 1872. — At the beginning of the campaign 
there were thus seven presidential candidates before the people. 
But some refused to run, and others had no chance, so that the 
contest was really between General Grant and Horace Greeley, 
who Avas caricatured unmercifully. The benevolent face of the 
great editor, spectacled, and fringed with a snow-white beard, 
appeared on fans, on posters, on showcards, where, as a setting 
sun, it might be seen going down behind the western hills. 
" Go west," his famous advice to young men, became the slang 
phrase of the hour. He was defeated, for Grant carried thirty- 
one states, and Greeley six. 



POLITICS FROM 18G8 TO 1880 445 

In many respects this was a most interesting election. For 
the first time in our history the freedmen voted for jjresi- 
dential electors. For the first time since 1860 the jjeople of all 
the states took part in tlie election of a President of tlie United 
States, while the number of candidates, Labor, Prohibition, 
Liberal E-epublican, JJemocratic, and Kepublican, showed that 
the old issues which caused the war or were caused by the war 
were dead or dying, and that new ones were coming forward. 

507. Panic of 1873. — Now, all these things, the immense 
expansion of the railroads, and the great outlay necessary for 
rebuilding Chicago, much of which had been burned in 1871, 
and Boston, which suffered from a great fire in 1872, absorbed 
money and made it difficult to get. Just in the midst of the 
stringency a quarrel arose between the farmers and the rail- 
roads in the West, and made matters worse. It stopped the 
sale of railroad bonds, and crippled the enterprises that de- 
pended on such sale for funds. It impaired the credit of 
bankers concerned in railroad building, and in September, 1873, 
a run on tliem for deposits began till one of them, Jay Cooke 
& Co., failed, and at once a panic swept over the business world. 
Country depositors demanded their money ; the country banks 
therefore withdrew their deposits with the city banks, which 
in turn called in their loans, and industry of every kind stopped. 
In 1873 there were 5000 failures, and in 1874 there were 5800. 
Hours of labor were reduced, wages were cut down, working- 
men were discharged by thousands. 

508. The Inflation Bill. — In hope of relieving this distress 
by making money easier to get, a demand was now made that 
Congress should issue more greenbacks. To this Congress, in 
1874, responded by passing the " Inflation Bill," declaring that 
there should be $400,000,000 in greenbacks, no more, no less. 
As the limit fixed in 1868 was $356,000,000 fp. 438), the bill 
tended to " inflate " or add to the paper currency $44,000,000. 
Grant vetoed the bill. 

509. Resumption of Specie Payments. — What shall be done 
with the currency ? n<nv became the question of the hour, and 

McM. Ilisr. — ii5 



446 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

at the next session of Congress (1874-75) another effort was 
made to answer it, and " an act to provide for the resumption 
of specie payments " was passed. 

1. Under this law, silver 10, 25, and 50 cent pieces were to be 

exchanged through the post offices and subtreasuries for 
fractional currency till it was all redeemed, 

2. Surplus revenue might be used and bonds issued for the 

purchase of coin. 

3. That part of an act of 1870 which limited the amount of 

national bank notes to $354,000,000 was repealed. 

4. The banks could now put out more bills ; but for each $100 

they put out the Secretary of the Treasury must call in 
$80 of greenbacks, till but $300,000,000 of them re- 
mained. 

5. After January 1, 1879, he must redeem them all on demand. 

510. The Political Issues of 1876. — The currency question, 
the hard times which had continued since 1873, the rise of the 
Labor and Prohibition parties, the reports of shameful cor- 
ruption and dishonesty in every branch of the public service, 
the dissatisfaction of a large part of the Eepublican party 
with the way affairs were managed by the administration, 
combined to make the election of 1876 very doubtful. The 
general displeasure was so great that the Democratic party 
not only carried state elections in the North in 1874 and 1875, 
but secured a majority of the House of Eepresentatives. 

511. Nomination of Presidential Candidates. — When the time 
came to make nominations for the presidency, the Prohibition 
party was first to act. It selected Green Clay Smith of Ken- 
tucky and G. T. Stewart of Ohio as its candidates, and de- 
manded that in all the territories and the District of Columbia, 
the importation, exportation, manufacture, and sale of alcoholic 
beverages should be stopped. Two other demands — the aboli- 
tion of polygamy (which was practiced by the Mormons in 
Utah), and the closing of the mails to the advertisements of 
gambling and lottery schemes — have since been secured. 



POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880. 447 

Next came the Greenback or Independent National party, 
which nominated Peter Cooper of New York and Samuel 
F. Carj of Ohio, and called for the repeal of the Eesump- 
tion of Specie Payment Act, and the issue of paper notes bear- 
ing a low rate of interest. 

In June, the Republicans met in Cincinnati, and nominated 
Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, and William A. Wheeler of 
New York. They endorsed the financial policy of the party, 
demanded civil service reform, protection to American indus- 
tries, no more land grants to corporations, an investigation of 
the effect of Chinese immigration, and "respectful consider- 
ation '^ of the woman's rights question. 

The Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. 
Hendricks, and called for reforms of every kind — in the civil 
service, in the administration, in expenditures, in the internal 
revenue system, in the currency, in the tariff, in the use of pub- 
lic lands, in the treatment of the South. 

512. Result of the Election. — While the campaign was going 
on, Colorado was admitted (in August, 1876) as a state. There 
were then thirty-eight states in the Union, casting 369 electoral 
votes. This made 185 necessary for a choice ; and when the 
returns were all in, it appeared that, if the Republicans could 
secure the electoral votes of South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, 
and Oregon, they would have exactly 185. In these states, how- 
ever, a dispute was raging as to which set of electors, Republi- 
can or Democratic, was elected. Each claimed to be ; and, as the 
result depended on them, each set met and voted. It was then 
for Congress to decide which should be counted. 

Now, the framers of the Constitution had never thought of 
such a condition of affairs, and had made no provisions to meet 
it. Congress therefore provided for an 

513. *' Electoral Commission," to decide which of the con- 
flicting returns should be accepted. This commission was to 
be composed of five senators, five representatives, and five jus- 
tices of the Supreme Court. The Senate chose three Republi- 
cans and two Democrats ; the House^ three Democrats and two 




448 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

Republicans. Congress appointed two Democratic and two 
Eepublican justices, who chose the fifth justice, who was 
a Eepublican. The Commission thus con- 
sisted of eight Eepublicans and seven Demo- 
crats. The decision as to each of the 
disputed states was in favor of the Eepubli- 
can electors, and as it could not be reversed 
unless both houses of Congress consented, 
and as both would not consent, Hayes was 
declared elected, over Tilden, by one electo- 
ral vote ; namely, Hayes, 185 ; Tilden, 184. 
Rutherford B. Hayes 514. Financial Policy of Grant's Adminis- 
tration. — The inauguration of Hayes was 
followed by a special session of Congress. In the House was 
a great Democratic majority, pledged to a new financial meas- 
ure — a pledge which it soon made good. 

The financial policy of Grant's eight years may be summed 
up briefly : 

1. (1869) The "Credit Strengthening Act,'' declaring that 5-20 

bonds of the United States should be paid " in coin." 

2. (1870) The Eefunding Act, by which ^1,500,000,000 in bonds 

bearing five and six per cent interest were ordered to be 
replaced by other bonds at four, four and a half, and 
five per cent. In this refunding, the 5-20's, whose prin- 
cipal was payable in greenbacks, were replaced by others 
whose principal was payable " in coin." 

3. (1873) The act of 1873, by stopping the coinage of silver 

dollars, and taking away the legal tender quality of those 
in circulation, made the words "in coin " mean gold. 

4. (1875) All greenbacks were to become redeemable in specie 

on January 1, 1879. 

5. To get specie, bonds might be issued. 

515. Bland Silver Bill; Silver remonetized. — Against the con- 
tinuance of this policy the majority of the House stood pledged. 
Before the session closed, therefore, two bills passed the House. 



POLITICS PROM 1868 TO 1880 449 

One repealed so mucli of the act of 1875 as provided for the 
retirement of greenbacks and tlie issue of bonds. The second 
was brought in by Mr. Blaud of Missouri, and is still known by 
his name. It provided 

1. That the silver dollar should again be coined, and at the 

ratio of 16 to 1 ; that is, that the same number of dollars 
should be made out of sixteen pounds of silver as out of 
one pound of gold. 

2. That silver should be a legal tender, at face value, for all 

debts, public and private. 
3." That all silver bullion brought to the mints should be coined 
into dollars without cost to the bringer. This was " free 
coinage of silver." 

The House passed the bill, but the Senate rejected the ^^ free 
coinage" provision and substituted the "Allison" amendment. 
Under this, the Secretary of the Treasury was to buy not less 
than 1^2,000,000, nor more than f 4,000,000, worth of silver 
bullion each month, and coin it into dollars. 

The House accepted the Senate amendment, and when Hayes 
vetoed the bill Congress passed it over his veto and the '^ Bland- 
Allison Bill " became a law in 1878. 

516. Silver Certificates. — Now this return to the coinage of 
the silver dollar was open to the objection that large sums in 
silver would be troublesome because of the weight. It was 
therefore provided that the coins might be deposited in the 
Treasury, and paper ^' silver certificates " issued against them. 

A few months later, January 1, 1879, the government re- 
turned to specie payment, and ever since has redeemed green- 
backs in gold, on demand. 

517.' Foreign Relations; the French in Mexico. — The state- 
ment was made (p. 383) that with the exception of Russia the 
great powers of Europe sympathized with the South during 
the Civil War. Two of them, France and Great Britain, were 
openly hostile. The French Emperor allowed Confederate 
agents to contract for the construction of war vessels in 



450 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

Frencli ports,^ and sent an army into Mexico to overturn 
that republic and establish an empire, Mexico owed the sub- 
jects of Great Britain, France, and Spain large sums of money, 
and as she would not pay, these three powers in 1861 sent a 
combined army to hold her seaports till the debts were paid. 
But it soon became clear that Napoleon had designs against 
the republic, whereupon Great Britain and Spain withdrew. 
Napoleon, however, seeing that the United States was unable 
to interfere because of the Civil War, went on alone, destroyed 
the Mexican republic and made Maximilian (a brother of the 
Emperor of Austria) Emperor of Mexico. This was in open 
defiance of the Monroe Doctrine, and though the United States 
protested, Napoleon paid no attention till 1865. Then, the 
Civil War having ended, and Sheridan with 50,000 veteran 
troops having been sent to the Eio Grande, the French soldiers 
were withdrawn (1867), and the Mexican republican party cap- 
tured Maximilian, shot him, and reestablished the republic. 

518. The Alabama Claims; Geneva Award. — The hostility 
of Great Britain was more serious than that of France. As we 
have seen, the cruisers {Alabama, Shenandoah, Florida) built 
in her shipyards went to sea and inflicted great injury on 
our commerce. Although she was well aware of this, she for 
a long time refused to make good the damage done. But 
wiser counsel in the end prevailed, and in 1871, by the treaty 
of Washington, all disputed questions were submitted to arbi- 
tration. 

The Alabama claims, as they were called, were sent to a board 
of five arbitrators who met at Geneva (1872) and awarded the 
United States $15,500,000 to be distributed among our citizens 
whose ships and property had been destroyed by the cruisers. 

519. Other International Disputes ; the Alaska Purchase. — To 
the Emperor of Germany was submitted the question of the 
true water boundary between Washington Territory and British 
Columbia. He decided in favor of the United States (1872). 

To a board of Fish Commissioners was referred the claim of 
1 See Bullock's Secret Service of the Confederate States in Europe. 



POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880 451 

Canada that the citizens of the United States derived more 
benefit from the fishing in Canadian waters than did the Cana- 
dians from using the coast waters of the United States. The 
award made to Great Britain was $5,500,000 (1877). 

In 1867, we purchased Alaska from Eussia for f 7,200,000, 

SUMMARY 

Financial History, 1865-1880 

1. When the war ended, the national debt consisted of two parts : the 

bonded, and the unbonded or floating. 

2. As public sentiment demanded the reduction of the debt, it was 

decided to pay the bonds as fast as possible, and contract the 
currency by canceling the greenbacks. 

3. Contraction went on till 1868, when Congress ordered it stopped. 

4. The payment of the bonds brought up the question. Shall the 5-20's 

be paid in coin or greenbacks ? 

5. The Democrats in 1868 insisted that the bonds should be redeemed 

in greenbacks ; the Republicans that they should be paid in coin, 
— and when they won, they passed the "Credit Strengthening 
Act" of 1869, and in 1870 refunded the bonds at lower rates. 

6. In the process of refunding, the 5-20's, whose principal was payable 

in greenbacks, were replaced by others payable "in coin." In 
1873, the coinage of the silver dollar was stopped, and the legal- 
tender quality of silver was taken away. The words "in coin" 
therefore meant " in gold." 

7. In 1875 it was ordered that all greenbacks should be redeemed in 

specie after January 1, 1879 (resumption of specie payment). 

8. In 1878 silver was made legal tender, and given limited coinage. 

The South and the Negro 

9. In 1869, three states still refused to comply with the Reconstruction 

Act of 1867 and had no representatives in Congress. 

10. Suoh states as had complied and given the negro the right to vote 

were under "carpetbag" rule. 

11. This rule became so unbearable that the Ku Klux Klan was organ- 

ized to terrify the negroes and keep them from the polls. 

12. Congress in consequence sent out the Fifteenth Amendment to the 

Constitution, and in 1871 enacted the Force Act. 

13. These and other issues, as that of amnesty, split the Republican party 

and led to the appearance of the Liberal Republicans in 1872. 

14. In general, however, party differences turned almost entirely on 

financial and industrial issues. 



CHAPTER XXXTII 

GROWTH OF THE NORTHWEST 

520. Results of the War. — The Civil War was fought by 
the North for the preservation of the Union and by the South 
for the destruction of the Union. But we who, after more 
than thirty years, look back on the results of that struggle, 
can see that they did not stop with the preservation of the 
Union. Both in the North and in the South the war produced 
a great industrial revolution. 

521 . Effect on the South. — In the South, in the first place, 
it changed the system of labor from slave to free. While the 
South was a slave-owning country free labor would not come 
in. Without free labor there could be no mills, no factories, 
no mechanical industries. The South raised cotton, tobacco, 
sugar, and left her great resources undeveloped. After slavery 
was abolished, the South was on the same footing as the North, 
and her splendid resources began at once to be developed. 

It was found that her rich deposits of iron ore were second 
to none in the world. It was found that beneath her soil lay 
an unbroken coal field, 39,000 square miles in extent. It was 
found that cotton, instead of being raised in less quantity 
under a system of free labor, was more widely cultivated than 
ever. In 1860, 4,670,000 bales were grown; but in 1894 the 
number produced was 9,500,000. The result has been the rise 
of a New South, and the growth of such manufacturing centers 
as Birmingham in Alabama and Chattanooga in Tennessee, and 
of that center of commerce, Atlanta, in Georgia. 

522. Rise of New Industries in the North. — Much the same 
industrial revolution has taken place in the North. The list 

454 



GROWTH OF THE NORTHWEST 



455 




Scene in the oil regions of Pennsylvania 



of industries well known to us, but unknown in 1860, is a long 
one. The production of petroleum for commercial purposes 
began in 1859, when Mr. Drake drilled his well near Titus- 
ville, in Pennsylvania. In 1860 the daily yield of all the wells 
in existence was not 200 barrels. But by 1891 this industry 
had so developed that 54,300,000 barrels were produced in 
that year, or 14,900 a day. 

The last thirty years have seen the rise of cheese making 
as a distinctive factory industry; of the manufacture of oleo- 
margarine, wire nails, Bessemer steel, cotton-seed oil, coke, 
canned goods; of the immense mills of Minneapolis, where 
10,000,000 barrels of flour are made annually, and of the 
meat dressing and packing business for which Chicago and 
Kansas City are famous. 

523. The New Northwest. — When the census was taken in 
1860, so few people were living in what are now Wyoming, 



456 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

Montana, and Idaho that they were not counted. In Dakota 
there were less than 5000 inhabitants. The discovery of gold 
and silver did for these territories what it had done for Colo- 
rado. It brought into them so many miners that in 1870 the 
population of these four territories amounted to 59,000. Be- 
tween Lake Superior (where in the midst of a vast wilder- 
ness Duluth had just been laid out on the lake shore) and the 
mining camps in the mountains of Montana, there was not a 
town nor a hamlet. (There were indeed a few forts and Indian 
agencies and a few trading posts.) Northern Minnesota was 
a forest, into which even the lumbermen had not gone. The 
region from the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains was the 
hunting ground of the Sioux, and was roamed over by enormous 
herds of buffalo. 

524. The Northern Pacific Railroad. — But this great wilder- 
ness was soon to be crossed by one of the civilizers of the age. 
After years of vain effort, the promoters of the Northern 
Pacific began the building of their road in 1870, and pushed 
it across the plains till Duluth and St. Paul were joined with 
Puget Sound. As it went further and further westward, 
emigrants followed it, towns sprang up, and cities grew with 
astonishing rapidity. 

525. The New States. — Idaho, which had no white inhabit- 
ants in 1860, had 32,000 in 1880 ; Montana had 39,000 in 1880, 
as against none in 1860. Kansas in twenty years increased 
her population four fold, and Nebraska eight fold. This was 
extraordinary; but it was surpassed by Dakota, whose popu- 
lation increased nearly ten fold in ten years (1870-1880), and 
in 1889 was half a million. The time had now come to form 
a state government. But as most of the people lived in the 
south end of the territory, it was cut in two, and North and 
South Dakota were admitted into the Union as states on the 
same day (November 2, 1889) ; Montana followed within a 
fortnight, and Idaho and Wyoming within a year (July, 1890). 
The four territories, in which in 1860 there were but 5000 
white settlers, had thus by 1890 become the five states of 



GROWTH OF THE NORTHWEST 



45' 



North and South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, with 
a popuLation of 790,000.i 

526. Wheat Farms and Cattle Ranches. — Such a rush of people 
completely transformed the country. The " Great American 
Desert" was made productive. The buffaloes were almost 
exterminated, and one now is as great a curiosity in the West 
as in the East. More than 7,000,000 were slaughtered in 
1871-1872. In lieu of them countless herds of cattle and sheep, 






"TP^--^ 



I 




A typical prairie sod house 

and fields of wheat and corn, cover the plains and hills of the 
Northwest. In 1896 Montana contained 3,000,000 sheep, and 
AVyoming and Idaho each over 1,000,000. In the two Dakotas 
60,000,000 bushels of wheat and 30,000,000 of corn were 
harvested. Many of the farms are of enormous size. Ten, 
twenty, thirty thousand acre farms are not unknown. One 
contains 75,000 acres. 

Over this region, the Dakotas, Montana, Kansas, and Ne- 
braska, wander herds of cattle, the slaughtering and packing 

1 Colorado was admitted to the Union in 1876, Washington in 1889 
(November 11) ; and Utah, the forty-fifth state, in 1896, under a consti- 
tution forever prohibiting polygamy. 



458 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

of whicli have founded new branches of industry. The stock- 
yards at Chicago make a city. 

527. Oklahoma. — The eagerness of the "cattle kings" to 
get more land for these herds to graze over had much to do 
with the opening of Oklahoma for settlement. Originally it 
was part of Indian Territory, and was sold by the Seminole 
Indians with the express condition that none but Indians and 
freedmen should settle there. But the cattle kings, in de- 
fiance of the government, went in and inclosed immense tracts. 
Many were driven out, only to come in again. Their expul- 
sion, with that of small proprietors called "boomers," caused 
much agitation. Congress bought a release from the condition, 
and in 1889 opened Oklahoma to settlement. 

528. The Boom Towns. — A proclamation that a part of 
Oklahoma would be opened April 22, caused a wild rush from 
every part of the West, till five times as many settlers as 
could possibly obtain land were lined up on the borders wait- 
ing for the signal to cross. Precisely at noon on April 22, a 
bugle sounded, a wild yell answered, a cloud of dust filled the 
air, and an army of men on foot, on horseback, in wagons, 
rushed into the promised land. That morning Guthrie was a 
piece of prairie land. That night it was a city of 10,000 souls. 
Before the end of the year 60,000 people were in Oklahoma, 
building towns and cities of no mean character. 

Within fifteen years Oklahoma had a population of over 
half a million ; and in 1907 it was admitted as the forty-sixth 
state, including both Oklahoma and what was left of the old 
Indian Territory. 

SUMMARY 

1. One important result of the Civil War was a great industrial revolution. 

2. Mining for precious metals, tlie Northern Pacific Railroad, and other 

causes led to the admission into the Union of Colorado (1876), 
North and South Dakota, Montana, Washington (1889), Idaho, 
Wyoming (1890), Utah (1896), and Oklahoma (1907). 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 

529. Mechanical Progress. — The mechanical progress made 
by our countrymen since the war surpasses that of any previous 
period. In 1866 another cable was laid across the bed of the 
Atlantic Ocean, and worked successfully. Before 1876 the Gat- 
ling gun, dynamite, and the barbed-wire fence were introduced; 
the compressed-air rock drill, the typewriter, the Westing- 
house air brake, the Janney car coupler, the cable-car system, 
the self -binding reaper and harvester, the cash carrier for stores, 
water gas, and the tin-can-making machine were invented, 
and Brush gave the world the first successful electric light. 

530. Uses of Electricity. — Till Brush invented his arc light 
and dynamo, the sole practical use made of electricity was in 
the field of telegraphy. But now in rapid succession came the 
many forms of electric lights and electric motors ; the electric 
railway, the search light; photography by electric light; the 
welding of metals by electricity ; the phonograph and the tele- 
phone. In the decade between 1876 and 1886 came also the 
hydraulic dredger, the gas engine, the enameling of sheet- 
iron ware for kitchen use, the bicycle, and the passenger ele- 
vator, which has transformed city life and dotted our great 
cities with buildings fifteen and twenty stories high. 

The decade 1886-1896 gave us the graphophone, the kineto- 
scope, the automobile, the vestibuled train, the cash regis- 
ter, the perfected typewriter; the modern bicycle, which has 
deeply affected the life of the people; and a great develop- 
ment in photography. 

531. Rise of Great Corporations. — That mechanical progress 
so astonishing should powerfully affect the business and indus- 
trial world was inevitable. Trades, occupations, industries of 

459 



460 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

all sorts, began to concentrate and combine, and corporations 
took the place of individuals and small companies. In place 
of the forty little telegraph companies of 1856, there was the 
great Western Union Company. In place of many petty 
railroads, there were a few trunk lines. In place of a hundred 
producers and refiners of petroleum, there was the one Standard 
Oil Company. These are but a few of many; for the rapid 
growth of corporations was a characteristic of the period. 

532. Millionaires and "Captains of Industry." — As old lines 
of industry were expanded and new ones were created, the 
opportunities for money-getting were vastly increased. Men 
now began to amass immense fortunes in gold and silver min- 
ing; by dealing in coal, in grain, in cattle, in oil; by specula- 
tion in stocks; in iron and steel making; in railroading, — 
millionaires and multi-millionaires became numerous, and 
were often called "captains of industry," as an indication 
of the power they held in the industrial world. 

533. Condition of Labor. — Meanwhile, the conditions of the 
workingman were also changing rapidly: 1. The chief em- 
ployers of labor were corporations and great capitalists. 2. The 
short voyage and low fare from Europe, the efforts made by 
steamship companies to secure passengers, the immense busi- 
ness activity in the country from 1867 to 1872, and the oppor- 
tunities afforded by the rapidly growing West, brought over 
each year hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Europe 
to swell the ranks of labor. Between 1867 and 1873 the number 
was 2,500,000. 3. Bad management on the part of some corpo- 
rations; "watering" or unnecessarily increasing their stock 
on the part of others, combined with sharp competition, began, 
especially after the panic of 1873, to cut down dividends. 
This was followed by reduction of wages, or by an increase 
in the duties of employees, and sometimes by both. 

534. Labor Organizations ; the Knights of Labor. — Trades 
unions existed in our country before the Constitution; but 
it was at the time of the great industrial development dur- 
ing and after the war, that the era of unions opened. At 



MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS 461 

first that of each trade had no connection with that of any- 
other. But in 1869 an effort was made to unite all working- 
men on the broad basis of labor, and " The Noble Order of 
Knights of Labor " was founded. For a while it was a secret 
order ; but in 1878 a declaration of principles was made, which 
began with the statement that the alarming development and 
aggressiveness of great capitalists and corporations, unless 
checked, "would degrade the toiling masses," and announced 
that the only way to check this evil was to unite "all laborers 
into one great body." The knights were in favor of 

1. The creation of bureaus of labor for the collection and 

spread of information. 

2. Arbitration between employers and employed. 

3. Government ownership of telegraphs, telephones, railroads. 

4. The reduction of the working day to eight hours. 

They were opposed 

1. To the hiring out of convict labor. 

2. To the importation of foreign labor under contract. 

3. To interest-bearing government bonds, and in favor of a 

national currency issued directly to the people without 
the intervention of banks. 

535. The Workingman in Politics — As these ends could be 
secured only by legislation, they very quickly became political 
issues and brought up a new set of economic questions for 
settlement. From 1865 to 1870 the matters of public concern 
were the reconstruction measures and the public debt. From 
1870 to 1878 they were currency questions, civil service reform, 
and land grants to railroads. From 1878 to 1888 almost every 
one of them was in some way directly connected with labor. 

SUMMARY 

1. Great inventions founded and developed new industries. 

2. These in turn expanded tlie ranks of labor, and led to the rise of cor- 

porations and labor organizations, and a demand for a long series of 
reforms. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

POLITICS SINCE 1880 

536. Candidates in 1880. — The campaign of 1880 was opened 
by the meeting of the Republican national convention at 
Chicago, where a long and desperate effort was made to nomi- 
nate General Grant for a third term. But James Abram Gar- 
field and Chester A. Arthur were finally chosen. The platform 
called for national aid to state education, for protection to 
American labor, for the suppression of polygamy in Utah, for 
" a thorough, radical, and complete " reform of the civil ser- 
vice, and for no more land grants to railroads or corporations. 

The Greenback-Labor party nominated James B. Weaver 
and B. J. Chambers, and declared 

1. That all money should be issued by the government and 

not by banking corporations. 

2. That the public domain must be kept for actual settlers 

and not given to railroads. 

3. That Congress must regulate commerce between the states, 

and secure fair, moderate, and uniform rates for passen- 
gers and freight. 

Next came the Prohibition party convention, and the nomi- 
nation of Neal Dow and Henry Adams Thompson. 

Last of all was the Democratic convention, which nominated 
General Winfield S. Hancock and William H. English. The 
platform called for 

1. Honest money, consisting of gold and silver and paper 

convertible into coin on demand. 

2. A tariff for revenue only. 

3. Public lands for actual settlers. 

462 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 



463 



537. Election and Death of Garfield. — The campaign was re- 
markable for several reasons : 

1. Every presidential elector was chosen by popular vote ; and 

every electoral vote was counted as it was cast. This was 
the first presidential election in our country of which both 
these statements could be made. 

2. For the first time since 1844 there was no agitation of a 

Southern question. 

3. All parties agreed in calling for anti-Chinese legislation. 

Garfield and Arthur were elected, and inaugurated on March 

4. 1881. But on July 2, 1881, as Garfield stood in a railway 
station at Washington, a disappointed office 
seeker came up behind and shot him in the 
back. A long and painful illness followed, 
till he died on September 19, 1881. 

538. Presidential Succession — The death of 
Garfield and the succession of Arthur to the 
presidential office left the country in a pecul- 
iar situation. An act of Congress passed in ^K^\Wf V 
1792 provided that if both the presidency ' ^ 
and vice presidency were vacant at the same ^^"^^^ ^- Garfield 
time, the President -pro tempore of the Senate, or if there 
were none, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, 

should act as President, till a new one was 
elected. But in September, 1881, there was 
neither a President p?'o tempore of the Senate 
nor a Speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives, as the Forty-sixth Congress ceased to 
exist on March 4, and the Forty-seventh was 
not to meet till December. Had Arthur died 
or been killed, there would therefore have 
been no President. It was not likely that 
such a condition would happen again; but 
attention was called to the necessity of providing for succes- 
sion to the presidency, and in 1886 a new law was enacted. 





Chester A. Arthur 



464 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

Now, should the presidency and vice presidency both become 
vacant, the presidency passes to members of the Cabinet in 
the order of the establishment of their departments, beginning 
with the Secretary of State. Should he die, be impeached and 
removed, or become disabled, it would go to the Secretary of 
the Treasury, and then, if necessary, to the Secretary of War, 
the Attorney-general, the Postmaster-general, the Secretary 
of the Navy, the Secretary of the Interior. 

539. Party Pledges redeemed. — Since the Republican party 
was in power, a redemption of the pledges in their platform 
(p. 462) was necessary, and three laws of great importance were 
enacted. One, the Edmunds law (1882), was intended to sup- 
press polygamy in Utah and the neighboring territories. 
Another (1882) stopped the immigration of Chinese laborers 
for ten years. The third, the Pendleton Civil Service Act 
(1883), was designed to secure appointment to public office 
on the ground of fitness, and not for political service. 

540. Corporations. — These measures were all good enough 
in their way ; but they left untouched grievances which the 
workingmen and a great part of the people felt were unbear- 
able. That the development of the v/ealth and resources of 
our country is chiefly due to great corporations and great capi- 
talists is strictly true. But that many of them abused the 
power their wealth gave them cannot be denied. They were 
accused of buying legislatures, securing special privileges, fix- 
ing prices to suit themselves, importing foreign laborers under 
contract in order to depress wages, and favoring some customers 
more than others. 

541. The Anti-monopoly and Labor Parties. — Out of this con- 
dition of affairs grew the Anti-monopoly party, which held a 
convention in 1884 and demanded that the Federal govern- 
ment should regulate commerce between the states; that it 
should therefore control the railroads and the telegraphs ; that 
Congress should enact an interstate commerce law; and that 
the importation of foreign laborers under contract should be 
made illegal. 




Grover Cleveland 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 465 

This platform was so fully in accordance with the views of 
the Greenback or National party, that Benjamin F. Butler, 
the candidate of the Anti-monopolists, was endorsed and so 
practically nnited the two parties. 

542. The Republican and Democratic Parties. — The Eepubli- 
cans nominated James G. Blaine and John A. Logan, and the 
Democrats Stephen Grover Cleveland and 

Thomas A. Hendricks. The Prohibition- 
ists put up John P. St. John and William 
Daniel. The nomination of Blaine was the 
signal for the revolt of a wing of the Re- 
publicans, which took the name of Inde- 
pendents, and received the nickname of 
"Mugwumps." The revolt was serious in 
its consequences, and after the most exciting 
contest since 1876, Cleveland was elected. 

543. Public Measures adopted during 1 885-1 889. — Widely as 
the parties differed on many questions, Democrats, Repub- 
licans, and Nationalists agreed in demanding certain reform 
measures which were now carried out. In 1885 an Anti- 
Contract-Labor law was enacted, forbidding any person, com- 
pany, or corporation to bring any aliens into the United States 
under contract to perform labor or service. In 1887 came the 
Interstate Commerce Act, placing the railroads under the 
supervision of commissioners whose duty it is to see that 
all charges for the transportation of passengers and freight are 
"reasonable and just," and that no special rates, rebates, draw- 
backs, or unjust discriminations are made for one shipper over 
another. In 1888 a second Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited 
the return of any Chinese laborer who had once left the coun- 
try. That same year a Department of Labor was established 
and put in charge of a commissioner. His duty is to " diffuse 
among the people of the United States useful information on 
subjects connected with labor." 

544. Political Issues since 1888. — Thus by the end of Mr. 
Cleveland's hrst term many of the demands of the working- 

McM. Hist.— 26 



466 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

men had been granted, and laws enacted for their relief. 
These issues disposed of, a new set arose, and after 1888 
financial questions took the place of labor issues. 

545. The Surplus and the Tariff. — These financial problems 
were brought up by the condition of the public debt. For 
twenty years past the debt had been rapidly growing less 
and less, till on December 1, 1887, it was $1,665,000,000, a 
reduction of more than $1,100,000,000 in twenty-one years. 
By that time every bond of the United States that could be 
called in and paid at its face value had been canceled. As 
all the other bonds fell due, some in 1891 and others in 1907, 
the government must either buy them at high rates, or suffer 
them to run. If it suffered them to run, a great surplus would 
pile up in the Treasury. Thus on December 1, 1887, after 
every possible debt of the government was met, there was a 
surplus of $50,000,000. Six months later (June 1, 1888) the 
sum had increased to $103,000,000. 

Unless this was to go on, and the money of the country be 
locked up in the Treasury, one of three things must be done; 

1. More bonds must be bought at high rates. 

2. Or the revenue must be reduced by reducing taxation. 

3. Or the surplus must be distributed among the states as in 

1837, or spent. 

546. The Mills Tariff Bill. — Each plan had its advocates. 
But the Democrats, who controlled the House of Representa- 
tives, attempted to solve the problem by cutting down the 
revenue, and passed a tariff bill, called the Mills Bill, after 
its chief author, Mr. E. Q. Mills of Texas. The Eepublicans 
declared it was a free-trade measure and defeated it in the 
Senate. 

547. The Campaign of i888 ; Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third 
President. — In the party platforms of 1888 we find, therefore, 
that three issues are prominent: (1) taxation, (2) tariff re- 
form, (3) the surplus. The Democrats nominated Grover 
Cleveland and Allen G. Thurman, and demanded frugality in 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 



467 




Benjamin Harrison 



public expenses, no more revenue than was needed to pay the 
necessary cost of government, and a tariff for revenue only. 
The Republicans nominated Benjamin Har- 
rison and Levi P. Morton, and demanded a 
tariff for protection, a reduction of the 
revenue by the repeal of taxes on tobacco 
and on spirits used in the arts, and by the 
admission free of duty of foreign-made arti- 
cles the like of which are not produced at 
home. 

The Prohibitionists, the Union Labor 
party, and the United Labor party also 
placed candidates in the field. Harrison and Morton were 
elected, and inaugurated March 4, 1889. 

548. The Republicans in Control. — The Republican party not 
only regained the presidency, but was once more in control of 
the House and Senate. Thus free to carry out its pledges, 
it passed the McKinley Tariff Act (1890); a new pension 
bill, which raised the number of pensioners to 970,000, and 
the sum annually spent on pensions from $106,000,000 to 
$150,000,000; and a new financial measure, known as 

549. The Sherman Act. — You remember that the attempt to 
enact a law for the free coinage of silver in 1878 led to the 
Bland-Allison Act (see p. 449), for the purchase of bullion 
and the coinage of at least $2,000,000 worth of silver each 
month. As this was not free coinage, the friends of silver 
made a second attempt, in 1886, to secure the desired legisla- 
tion. This also failed. But in the summer of 1890, the silver 
men, having a majority of the Senate, passed a free-coinage 
bill (June 17), which the House rejected (June 25). A con- 
ference followed, and from this conference came a bill which 
was quickly enacted into a law and called the Sherman Act. 
It provided 



1. That the Secretary of the Treasury should buy 4,500,000 
ounces of silver each month. 



468 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

2. That he should pay for the bullion with paper money called 

treasury notes. 

3. That on demand of the holder the Secretary must redeem. 

these notes in gold or silver. 

4. After July 1, 1891, the silver need not be coined, but 

might be stored in the Treasury, and silver certificates 
issued. 

550. The Farmers' Alliance. — This legislation, combined with 
an agricultural depression and widespread discontent in the 
agricultural states, caused the defeat of the Republicans in 
the elections of 1890. The Democratic minority of 21 in the 
House of Eepresentatives of the Fifty-first Congress was 
turned into a Democratic majority of 135 in the Fifty-second. 
Eight other members were elected by the Farmers' Alliance. 

For twenty years past the farmers in every great agricultural 
state had been organizing, under such names as Patrons of 
Husbandry, Farmers' League, the Grange, Patrons of Industry, 
Agricultural "Wheel, Farmers' Alliance. Their object was to 
promote sociability, spread information concerning agriculture 
and the price of grain and cattle, and guard the interests and 
welfare of the farmer generally. By 1886 many of these began 
to unite, and the National Agricultural Wheel of the United 
States, the Farmers' Alliance and Cooperative Union of 
America, and several more came into existence. In 1889 the 
amalgamation was carried further still, and at a convention 
in St. Louis they were all practically united in the Farmers' 
Alliance and Industrial Union. 

The purpose of this alliance was political, and as its strong- 
hold was Kansas, the contest began in that state in 1890. At 
a convention of Alliance men and Knights of Labor, a " Peo- 
ple's Party " was formed, which elected a majority of the state 
legislature. Five out of seven Congressmen were secured, and 
one United States senator. Before Congress met (in Decem- 
ber, 1891), another member of the House was elected elsewhere, 
and three more senators. The support of fifty other repre- 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 469 

sentatives was claimed. Greatly elated ovei* this iini)ortant 
footing, the Alliance men marked out a plan for congressional 
legislation. They demanded 

1. A bill for the free and unlimited coinage of silver. 

2. The subtreasury scheme. 

3. A Land Mortgage Bill. 

551. The Subtreasury Plan of the Alliance Party. — The idea 
at the base of these demands was that the amount of money in 
circulation must be increased, and loaned to the people without 
the aid of banks or capitalists. It was proposed, therefore, 
that the government should establish a number of subtreasury 
or money-loaning stations in each state, at which the farmers 
could borrow money from the government (at two per cent 
interest), giving as security non-perishable farm produce. 

552. The Land Mortgage Scheme provided that any owner of 
from 10 to 320 acres of land, at least half of which was under 
cultivation, might borrow from the government treasury notes 
equal to half the assessed value of the land and buildings. 

553. The People's Party organized. — That either of the old 
parties would further such schemes was far from likely. A 
cry was therefore raised by the most ardent Alliance men for 
a third party, and at a conference of Alliance and Labor 
leaders in May, 1891, a new national party was founded, and 
named " The People's Party of the United States of America." 

554. Party Candidates in 1892. — When the campaign opened 
in 1892 there were thus four parties in the field. The People's 
party nominated James B. Weaver and James G. Field. The 
platform called for 

1. The free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the 

ratio of 16 to 1. 

2. A graduated income tax. 

3. Government ownership of railroads, telegraphs, and tele- 

phones. 

4. The restriction of immigration. 



470 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

5. A national currency to be loaned to the people at two per 

cent interest per annum, secured by land or produce. 

6. All land held by aliens, or by railroads in excess of their 

actual needs, to be reclaimed and held for actual settlers. 

The Prohibitionists nominated John Bidwell and J. B. Cran- 
fill, and declared ^' anew for the entire suppression of the 
manufacture, sale, importation, exportation, and transportation 
of alcoholic liquors as a beverage." 

The Democratic party selected Grover Cleveland for the 
third time and chose Adlai E. Stevenson for Vice President. 
The platform condemned trusts and combines, advocated the 
reclamation of the public lands from corporations and syndi- 
cates, the exclusion of the Chinese and of the criminals and 
paupers of Europe, denounced " the Sherman Act of 1890," and 
called for "the coinage of both gold and silver without dis- 
criminating against either metal or charge for mintage," with 
" the dollar unit of coinage of both metals " " of equal intrinsic 
and exchangeable value." 

The Eepublicans nominated Benjamin Harrison and Whitelaw 
Reid, expressed their sympathy with the cause of temperance, 
their opposition to trusts, and called for the coinage of both gold 
and silver in such way that " the debt-paying power of the dol- 
lar, whether silver, gold, or paper, shall be at all times equal." 

555. Grover Cleveland reelected. — The election was a complete 
triumph for the Democratic party. Mr. Cleveland was again 
elected, and for the first time since 1861 the House, Senate, 
and President were all three Democratic. 

Mr. Cleveland was inaugurated March 4, 1893. Never in its 
history had the country been seemingly more prosperous ; the 
crops were bountiful ; business was flourishing, manufactures 
were thriving. But the prosperity was not real. Business was 
inflated, and during the following summer an industrial and 
financial panic which had long been brewing swept over the 
business world, wrecking banks and destroying industrial and 
commercial establishments. 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 471 

To understand what now happened, two facts must be 
remembered : 

1. Under the Resumption of Specie Payment Act of 1875 

(see p. 446), the Secretary of the Treasury was author- 
ized to buy specie by the issue of bonds and keep it to 
redeem United States notes. 

2. In May, 1878, it was ordered that when a greenback was 

redeemed in specie, it should " not be retired, canceled, 
or destroyed, but shall be reissued and paid out again 
and kept in circulation." There were then $346,681,000 
in greenbacks unredeemed. 

556. The Gold Reserve. — Meantime, under the law of 1875, 
and before January 1, 1879, the secretary issued $95,500,000 
in bonds, the proceeds of which, with other gold then in the 
Treasury, made a fund deemed sufficient to redeem such notes 
as were likely to be presented. This has since been called 
our gold reserve, and has been fixed by the secretaries at 
$100,000,000. January 1, 1879, the reserve was $114,000,000, 
and though it often rose and fell, it never went below that 
amount till July, 1892. By that time there were other gold 
obligations. The silver purchased under the law of 1890 
was paid for with notes exchangeable for "coin"; but as the 
secretaries always construed " coin " to mean gold, and as by 
1893 these notes amounted to $150,000,000, our gold obli- 
gations — that is, notes exchangeable for gold — were nearly 
$500,000,000 (greenbacks, $346,000,000; silver purchase notes, 
$150,000,000). This immense and steadily increasing sum 
caused a doubt of our ability to pay in gold, and a fear that 
we might be forced to pay in silver. Now silver, since 1873, 
had fallen steadily in value from $1.30 an ounce to $0.81 an 
ounce in 1893, so that the bullion value of a silver dollar was 
about 67 cents. The fear, then, that our debts might be paid 
in silver (1) led foreigners to cease investing money in this 
country, and to send our stocks and bonds home to be sold, 
and (2) led people in this country to draw gold out of the 



472 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

banks and the Treasury and hoard it, so that in April, 1893, 
the gold reserve, for the first time since it Avas created, fell 
below $100,000,000 (to {^97,000,000). 

557. The Panic of 1893. — Business depression and "tight 
money" followed. Over three hundred banks suspended or 
failed, manufactories all over the country shut down, and a 
period of great distress set in. People, alarmed at the condi- 
tion of the banks, began to draw their deposits and hoard 
them, thereby causing such a scarcity of bills of small denomi- 
nations that a " currency famine " was threatened. 

558. The Purchase of Silver stopped. — Believing that the fear 
that we should soon be "on a silver basis" had much to do 
with this state of affairs, and that the compulsory purchase of 
silver each month had much to do with the fear, the President 
assembled Congress in special session, August 7, and asked for 
the repeal of that clause of the Sherman Act of 1890 (see 
p. 467) which required a monthly purchase of silver. After 
a struggle in which both of the old parties were split, the com- 
pulsory purciiase clause was repealed, November 1, 1893. 

559. The Silver Movement. — The steady fall in the bullion 
value of silver was a serious blow to the prosperity of the 
great silver-producing states, — Colorado, Montana, Idaho, 
South Dakota, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, and the territories 
of Arizona and New Mexico, — where silver mining was " the 
very heart from which every other industry receives support." 
In Colorado alone 15,000 miners were made idle. To the 
people of this section, some 2,000,000 in number, the silver 
question was of vital importance; and, alarmed at the call 
for the special session of Congress and the possible repeal of 
the silver-x^urchase clause, they held a convention at Denver, 
with a view to affecting public sentiment. A few weeks 
after, the National Bimetallic League met at Chicago. Both 
opposed the repeal, and demanded that if the government 
ceased to buy silver, the mints should be opened to free coin- 
age. This the friends of silver in the Senate attempted in 
vain to bring about. 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 473 

560. The Industrial Depression ; the Wilson Bill. — • The indus- 
trial revival which it was hoped would follow the repeal of 
the silver-purchase law did not take x^lace. Prices did not 
rise ; failures continued ; the long-silent mills did not reopen ; 
gold continued to leave the country, imports fell off, and, 
when the year ended, the receipts of the government were 
$34,000,000 behind the expenditures. With this condition 
of the Treasury facing it, Congress met in December, 1893. 
The Democrats were in control, and pledged to revise the 
tariff; and true to the pledge, William L. Wilson of West 
Virginia, Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and 
Means, presented a new tariff bill (the Wilson Bill) which 
after prolonged debate passed both Houses and became a law 
at midnight, August 27, 1894, without the President's signa- 
ture. As it was expected that the revenue yielded would not 
be sufficient to meet the expenses of government, one section 
of the law provided for a tax of two per cent on all incomes 
above $4000. This the Supreme Court afterwards declared 
unconstitutional. 

561. The Bond Issues. — We have seen that in April, 1893, 
the gold reserve fell to $97,000,000. But it did not stop 
there; for, the business depression and the demand for the 
free and unlimited coinage of silver continuing, the with- 
drawal of gold went on, till the reserve was so low that 
bonds were repeatedly sold for gold wherewith to maintain 
it. In this wise, during 1894-95, $262,000,000 were added 
to oar bonded debt. 

562. Foreign Relations ; the Hawaiian Revolution. — When 
Cleveland took office, a treaty providing for the annexation of 
the Hawaiian Islands was pending in the Senate. In Janu- 
ary, 1893, these islands were the scene of a revolution, which 
deposed the Queen and set up a "provisional government." 
Commissioners were then dispatched to Washington, where 
a treaty of annexation was negotiated and (February 15) sent 
to the Senate for approval. In the course of the revolution, 
a force of men from the United States steamer Boston was 



474 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

landed at the request of the revolutionary leaders, and our 
flag was raised over some of the buildings. When these facts 
became known, the President, fearing that the presence of 
United States marines might have contributed much to the 
success of the revolution, recalled the treaty from the Senate; 
and sent an agent to the islands to investigate. His report 
set forth in substance that the revolution would never have 
taken place had it not been for the presence and aid of United 
States marines, and that the Queen had practically been de- 
posed by United States officials. A new minister was there- 
upon sent, with instructions to announce that the treaty of 
annexation would not be confirmed, and to seek for the resto- 
ration of the Queen on certain conditions. But President 
Dole of the Hawaiian republic denied the right of Cleveland 
to impose conditions, or in any way interfere in the domestic 
concerns of Hawaii, and refused to surrender to the Queen. 

563. The Venezuelan Boundary Dispute. — During 1895, the 
boundary dispute which had been dragging on for more than 
half a century between Great Britain and Venezuela, reached 
what the President called "an acute stage," and made neces- 
sary a statement of the position of the United States under 
the Monroe Doctrine. Great Britain was therefore informed 
"that the established policy of the United States is against a 
forcible increase of any territory of a European power " in the 
New World, and " that the United States is bound to protest 
against the enlargement of the area of British Guiana against 
the will of Venezuela"; and she was invited to submit her 
claims to arbitration. Her answer was that the Monroe Doc- 
trine was " inapplicable to the state of things in which we live 
at the present day " and a refusal to submit her claims to 
arbitration. The President then asked and received authority 
to appoint a commission to examine the boundary and report. 
"When such report is made and accepted," said Cleveland, 
"it will in my opinion be the duty of the United States to 
resist by every means in its power, as a willful aggression 
upon its rights and interests, the appropriation by Great Brit- 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 475 

ain of any lands, or the exercise of any governmental juris- 
diction, over any territory which after investigation we have 
determined of right belongs to Venezuela." For a time the 
excitement this message aroused in Great Britain and our own 
country was extreme. But it soon subsided, and on February 
2, 1897, a treaty of arbitration was signed at Washington 
between Great Britain and Venezuela. 

564. The Election of 1896.— By that time the presidential 
election was over. When in the spring the time came to 
choose delegates to the party nominating conventions, the 
drift of public sentiment was so strong against the adminis- 
tration, that it seemed certain that the Republicans would 
"sweep the country." Little interest, therefore, was taken 
by the Democrats, while the Republicans were most concerned 
in the question whether Mr. McKinley or Mr. Reed should be 
their presidential candidate. But as delegates were chosen 
by the Democrats in the Western and Southern States, it be- 
came certain that the issue was to be the free and unlimited 
coinage of silver and gold at the ratio of 16 to 1. 

The Republican convention met in June, nominated Wil- 
liam McKinley and Garret A. Hobart, and declared the party 
"opposed to the free coinage of silver except by international 
agreement," whereupon thirty -four delegates representing the 
silver states (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, South Da- 
kota,, and Utah) seceded from the party. The Democratic 
convention assembled early in July, and after a most exciting 
session chose William J. Bryan and Arthur Sewall, and de- 
clared for "the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and 
gold at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for 
the aid or consent of any other nation." A great defection 
followed this declaration, scores of newspapers refused to 
support the candidates, and in September a convention of 
"gold Democrats," taking the name of the National Demo- 
cratic party, nominated John M. Palmer and Simon B. 
Buckner, on a "gold standard" platform. 

Meanwhile, the Prohibitionists, the National party (declar- 




476 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

ing for woman suffragGj prohibition, government ownership 
of railroads and telegraphs, an income tax, and the election of 
the President. Vice President, and senators by direct vote 
of the people), the Socialist Labor party, the Silver party, 
and the Populists, had all put candidates 
in the field. The Silver party indorsed 
Bryan and Sewall ; the Populists nomi- 
nated Bryan and Thomas E. Watson. 

565. McKinley, President. — An "edu- 
cational campaign ^^ was carried on with 
a seriousness never before approached in 
our history, and resulted in the election 
of Mr. McKinley. He was inaugurated 

,,,., -n-r T^- , on March 4, and immediately called a 

William McKinley • o r^ • i 

special session of Congress to revise the 

tariff, a work which ended in the enactment of the " Dingley 

Tariff," on July 24, 1897. 

566. The Cuban Question. — Absorbing as were the election 
and the tariff, there was another matter, which for two years 
past had steadily grown more and more serious. In Feb- 
ruary, 1895, the natives of Cuba for the sixth time in fifty 
years rebelled against the misrule of Spain and founded a 
republic. A cruel, bloody, and ruinous war followed, and as 
it progressed, deeply interested the people of our country. 
The island lay at our very doors. Upwards of $50,000,000 
of American money were invested in mines, railroads, and 
plantations there. Our yearly trade with Cuba was valued 
at $96,000,000. Our ports were used by Cubans in fitting out 
military expeditions, which the government was forced to stop 
at great expense. 

567. Shall Cuba be given Belligerent Rights ? — These mat- 
ters were serious, and when to them was added the sympathy we 
always feel for any people struggling for the liberty we enjoy, 
there seemed to be ample reason for our insisting that Spain 
should govern Cuba better or set her free. Some thought we 
should buy Cuba ; some that we should recognize the Eepub- 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 477 

lie of Cuba; others that we shoukl intervene even at the risk 
of war. Thus urged on, Congress in 1896 declared that the 
Cubans were entitled to belligerent rights in our ports, and 
asked the President to endeavor to persuade Spain to recog- 
nize the independence of Cuba; and the House in 1897 
recommended that the independence of Cuba be recognized. 
But nothing came of either recommendation, and so the matter 
stood when McKinley was inaugurated. 

During the summer of 1897 matters grew worse. A large 
part of the island became a wilderness. The people who had 
been driven into the towns by order of Captain General Wey- 
ler, the " reconcentrados, " were dying of starvation, and our 
countrymen, deeply moved at their suffering, began to send 
them food and medical aid. 

568. The Maine destroyed. — While engaged in this humane 
work they were horrified to hear that on the night of Febru- 
ary 15, 1898, our battleship Maine was blown up in the harbor 
of Havana, and 260 of her sailors killed. Although our Court 
of Inquiry was unable to fix the responsibility for the explo- 
sion, many people believed that it had been perpetrated by 
Spaniards, and the hope of a peaceable settlement of the Cuban 
question rapidly waned. The sum of ^50,000,000 was voted 
to the President for strengthening our defenses and buying 
ships and munitions of war. After declining to recognize the 
Cuban Republic, Congress adopted a resolution, on April 19, 
declaring for the freedom of Cuba, demanding that Spain 
should withdraw from the island, and authorizing the Presi- 
dent to compel her withdrawal, if necessary, by means of our 
army and navy. Spain severed diplomatic relations with us 
on April 21, and the war began on that date, as declared by 
an Act of Congress a few days later. Two hundred thousand 
volunteers were quickly enlisted, out of the much larger 
number that wished to serve. 

569. War with Spain — The Battle of Manila. — AVhile one 
fleet which had long been gathering at Key West went off and 
blockaded Havana and other parts of the coast of Cuba, 



478 



THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 




Admiral Dewey 



another, under Commodore George Dewey, sailed from Hong- 
kong to attack the Spanish fleet at the Philippine Islands. 
Dewey found it in the Bay of Manila, where, on May 1, 1898, 

he fought and won the most bril- 
liant naval battle in the world's 
history. Passing the forts at 
the entrance, he entered the bay, 
and, without the loss of a man 
or a ship, he destroyed the 
entire Spanish fleet of ten ves- 
sels, killed and wounded over 
600 men, and captured the arse- 
nal at Cavite (cah-ve'ta) and the 
forts at the entrance to the bay. 
The city of Manila was then 
blockaded by Dewey's fleet, and General Merritt with 20,000 
troops was sent across the Pacific to take possession of the 
Philippines, which had long been Spain's most important pos- 
session in the East. For his great 
victory Dewey received the thanks 
of Congress and was promoted to be 
Rear-Admiral, and later was given 
for life the full rank of Admiral. 

570. The Destruction of Cervera's 
Fleet — Capture of Santiago. — Mean- 
time a second Spanish fleet, under 
Admiral Cervera, sailed from the 
Cape Yerde Islands. Acting Pear- 
Admiral Sampson, with ships which 
had been blockading Havana, and 
Commodore Schley, with a Flying 

Squadron, went in search of Cervera, and after a long hunt 
he was found in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba (sahn-te- 
ah'go da coo 'bah), which was promptly blockaded by the 
ships of both squadrons, with Sampson in command. The 
narrow entrance to the harbor was so well defended by forts 




Rear-Admiral Sampson 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 



479 




General Shatter 



and submarine mines that a direct attack on Cervera was 

impossible. In an attempt to complete the blockade, ISTaval 

Constructor R. P. Hobson and a volunteer crew of seven men 

took the collier Merrhnac to the 

harbor entrance, and, amid a rain 

of shot and shell, sank her in the 

channel (June 3). The gallant 

little band escaped with life, but 

were made prisoners of war, and 

in time were exchanged. 

The capture of Santiago was 
decided upon when Cervera sought 
refuge in its harbor, and about 
18, 000 men (mostly of the regular 
army), under General Shafter, 
were hurried to Cuba and landed 
a few miles from the city. On 
July 1 the enemy's outer line of defenses were taken, after 
severe fighting at El Caney (ca-na') and San Juan (sahn hoo- 

ahn') ; and on the next day the 
Spaniards failed in an attempt to 
retake them. So certain was it 
that the city must soon surrender, 
that Cervera was ordered to dash 
from the harbor, break through 
the American fleet, and put to 
sea. On Sunday morning, July 3, 
the attempt was made ; a desperate 
\|' ^^ v^-^W^ sea fight followed, and, in a few 
hours, all six of the Spanish ves- 
sels were sunk or stranded, shat- 
tered wrecks, on the coast of Cuba. 
The Spanish loss in killed and wounded was heavy, while 
Admiral Cervera and about 1800 of his men were taken pris- 
oners. Not one of our vessels was seriously damaged, and but 
one of our men was killed. When the battle began, the 




Rear-Admiral Schley 



480 



THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 



American war ships were in their usual positions before the 
harbor, as assigned them by Admiral Sampson; but Sampson 
himself, in his flagship, was several miles to the east on his 
way to a conference with General Shafter. Commodore 
Schley's flagship, the Brooklyn^ was at the west end of the 
line, and as the enemy tried to escape in that direction, she 
was in the thickest of the flght. Another war ship which 
especially distinguished herself was the Oregon, a Western- 
built ship, which had sailed from 
San Francisco all the way around 
Cape Horn in order to reach the 
seat of war. 

After the naval battle of July 3, 
all hope of successful resistance 
by the Spaniards vanished, and on 
July 17, General Toral surren- 
dered Santiago, the eastern end 
of Cuba, and an army of nearly 
25,000 men. A week later Gen- 
eral Miles set off to seize the is- 
land of Porto Eico. He landed on the southern coast, and had 
occupied much of the island when hostilities came to an 
end. 

571. Peace. — On August 12, 1898, a protocol was signed 
by representatives of the two nations, providing for the imme- 
diate cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of Spain from 
the West Indies, and the occupation of Manila by the United 
States till the conclusion of a treaty of peace, which was to 
be negotiated by a commission meeting in Paris, and which 
was to provide for the disposition of the Philippines. 

News of the cessation of hostilities was instantly sent to 
all our fleets and armies. But, on August 13, before word 
could reach the Philippines, Manila was attacked by General 
Merritt's army and Dewey's fleet, whereupon the Spanish 
general surrendered the city and about 7000 soldiers. 

A formal treaty of peace was signed at Paris December 10, 




General Miles 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 481 

1898, providing that Spain should relinquish her title to Cuba, 
and cede Porto Rico, Guam (one of the Ladrones), and the 
Philippines to the United States ; and that the United States 
should pay $20,000,000 to Spain. The treaty was then sub- 
mitted to the governments of the United States and Spain for 
ratification; but in both countries it met some opposition. In 
our country objections were made especially to the taking of 
the Philippines without the consent of their inhabitants, many 
of whom, under the leadership of Aguinaldo, had previously 
rebelled against Spain and were now demanding complete 
independence ; but the prevailing view was that our immedi- 
ate control was necessary to prevent civil war, anarchy, and 
foreign complications there. Accordingly, on February 6, 

1899, the treaty was ratified by the Senate by a vote of 57 to 
27. Spain also accepted the treaty, which was formally pro- 
claimed April 11. The $20,000,000 was promptly paid to 
Spain, and ordinary diplomatic relations were resumed. 

572. The War Bonds and War Taxes. — For the expenses of 
the war with Spain Congress made ample provision. The 
Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to issue $400,000,- 
000 in 3 per cent bonds,^ and borrow $100,000,000 upon 
temporary certificates of indebtedness. Stamp taxes, an 
inheritance tax, and a duty on tea were laid, and the silver in 
the Treasury was ordered to be coined at the rate of $1,500,000 
a month. 

573. Hawaii annexed. — But in few respects was the effect 
of the war so marked as in the changed sentiment of the people 
toward Hawaii. During five years the little republic had been 
steadily seeking annexation to the United States, and seeking 
in vain. But with the partial occupation of the Philippines, 
and the impending acquisition of Porto Rico, and perhaps 
Cuba, the policy of territorial expansion lost many of its ter- 
rors, and the Hawaiian Islands were annexed by joint 

1 $200,000,000 of the war bonds were offered for popular subscription, 
and $109,000,000 were subscribed in sums under $500. All was taken in 
sums under $5000. 

McM. Hist. 




(482) 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 483 

resolution of Congress, signed by the President July 7, 1898. 
The formal transfer of sovereignty took place August 12. The 
islands continued temporarily under their existing form of 
government, with slight modifications, till June 14, 1900, when 
they were organized as a territory. 

574. The War in the Philippines. — While the treaty with 
Spain was under consideration, the city of Manila was held by 
General Otis, Merritt's successor; but native troops, under 
Aguinaldo, were in control of most of Luzon and several 
other islands. On the night of February 4, 1899, the long- 
threatened conflict between them 

was begun by Aguinaldo's unsuc- 
cessful attack on the Americans 
at Manila. War now followed ; but 
in battle after battle the natives 
were beaten and scattered, till by 
the beginning of the year 1900 the 
main army of the Filipinos had 
been completely broken up, and the 
only forces still opposing American 
authority were small bodies of General Otis 

bandits and guerrillas. These held 

out persistently, and continued the warfare for more than a 
year. In 1900 the President sent a commission to the Philip- 
pines to organize civil government in such localities and in such 
degree as it should deem advisable; and in 1902 Congress en- 
acted a plan of government under which the Philippines are 
constituted a partly self-governing dependency. 

575. Porto Rico and Cuba. — After the close of the Spanish 
war, both Porto Rico and Cuba remained under the military 
control of the United States for many months. For Porto 
Rico, which had been ceded to our country, Congress provided 
a system of civil government which went into effect May 1, 
1900. This organized Porto Rico as a dependency. 

Cuba, however, had not been ceded to the United States. 
It had passed under our control only for the restoration of 




484 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

peace and the establishment of a stable government there \ for 
Congress, in its resolution of April 19, 1898, asserted its 
determination, after the pacification of Cuba, " to leave the 
government and control of the island to its people." In June, 
1900, the local city governments were turned over to municipal 
officers that had been elected by the people. In the following 
winter a constitution was framed by a convention of delegates 
elected by the Cubans. Then, after certain provisions had 
been added to this, to govern the future relations between 
Cuba and the United States, and after the first officers of the 
Cuban Eepublic had been elected, the United States troops 
were withdrawn and the new government took charge of the 
island, May 20, 1902. 

576. Disorders in China. — Early in 1900 a patriotic society 
of Chinese, called the Boxers, began to massacre native Chris- 
tians in the north of China, and to drive out or kill all mission- 
aries and other foreigners. The disorder soon spread to Pekin, 
where the foreign ministers and their countrymen (including 
some Americans) were besieged in their quarter of the city by 
Boxers and regular Chinese troops ; for the Chinese government, 
instead of suppressing the Boxers, acted in sympathy with them. 

President McKinley sent warships and soldiers to China, 
where they cooperated with the forces of Japan and the Euro- 
pean powers in rescuing the imperiled foreigners in Pekin. 
War was not declared against China, though she resisted the 
invading troops, making it necessary for them to capture 
several towns and to fight several battles before Pekin was 
taken. A treaty was then negotiated with the United States, 
Japan, and the European powers, providing for the restoration 
of order and a settlement of the various claims against China. 

577. At home during 1900 our population was counted ; a 
President was elected ; and a currency law of much importance 
was enacted. In the United States and the territories there 
were found to be about 76,000,000 people, and in the one state 
of New York more inhabitants than there were in all the United 
States in 1810. 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 485 

By the currency law, kuowTi as tlie Gold Standard Act, it is 
provided : — 

1. That the gold dollar shall be the standard unit of value. 

2. That all forms of money issued or coined shall be kept 

" at a parity of value " with this gold standard. 

3. That United States notes and Treasury notes shall be 

redeemed in gold coin. For this purpose ^150,000,000 of 
gold coin or bullion is set apart in the Treasury. 

578. When the time came to prepare for the election of a 
President and Vice President, eleven conventions were held, 
as many platforms were framed, and eight pairs of candidates 
were nominated. There were the Democratic and Pepublican 
parties; the People's Party (Fusionists) and the People's 
Party (Middle of the Koad Anti-Pusionists) ; the Prohibition, 
United Christian, Silver Pepublican, Socialist Labor, Social 
Democratic, and National parties ; and the Anti-Imperialist 
League. The things opposed, approved of, or demanded by 
these parties were many and various; but a few should be 
stated as showing what the people were thinking about: 
Trusts, the gold standard, the free coinage of silver, a canal 
across ISTicaragua or the isthmus of Panama, election of 
United States senators by the people, repeal of the war taxes, 
statehood for the territories, independence for the Filipinos, 
aid to American shipping, irrigation of the arid lands in the 
West, public ownership of railways and telegraphs, desecra- 
tion of the Sabbath, equality of men and women, exclusion of 
the Asiatics, the Monroe Doctrine. 

579. McKinley Reelected. — The Populist (Fusionist) conven- 
tion nominated W^illiam J. Bryan and Charles A. Towne. But 
the Democrats named Bryan and Adlai E. Stevenson. There- 
upon Towne withdrew, and Bryan and Stevenson were made 
the candidates of the Populists and the Silver party as well 
as of the Democrats. The Democratic platform denounced 
imperialism and trusts, and reiterated the demand for the free 
coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. The Republicans 



486 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

renominated President McKinley, and nominated Theodore 
Eoosevelt for Vice President, on a platform indorsing McKin- 
ley's administration and favoring tlie gold standard of money. 
McKinley and Roosevelt were elected. 

580. McKinley Assassinated. — On March 4, 1901, the Presi- 
dent began his second term, which six months later came to a 
dreadful end. In May a great fair — the Pan-American Expo- 
sition — was opened at Buffalo, and to this exposition the 
President came as a guest early in September, and was holding 
a public reception on the afternoon of the 6th, when an anar- 
chist who approached as if to shake hands, suddenly shot 
him twice. For several days it was thought that the wounds 
would not prove fatal ; but early on the morning of the 14th, the 
President died, and that afternoon Mr. Roosevelt took the oath 
of office required by the Constitution and became President. 

581. Public Measures adopted in 1901-1904. — The events 
connected with our large island possessions had directed much 

attention to our military and naval forces. 
As a result, Congress passed several meas- 
ures to increase the efficiency of the army, 
and appropriated large sums for additions 
to the navy. For the reclamation of the 
arid parts of the Far West an important 
law was enacted (1902), setting aside the 
money received from the sales of public 
land in that part of the country and appro- 
Theodore Roosevelt P^iating it for the planning and construc- 
tion of irrigation works. In 1903 a ninth 
member was added to the President's cabinet in the person of 
the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The new department 
was made to include the Department of Labor established 
fifteen years before, and a number of other bureaus already 
existing; at the same time the Bureau of Corporations was 
newly established, and was given the power to investigate 
the organization and workings of any trust or corporation 
(except railroads) engaged in interstate or foreign commerce, 




POLITICS SINCE 1880 487 

and, with the President's approval, to publish the information 
so obtained. 

A long-standing dispute as to the eastern boundary of south- 
ern Alaska was referred to a Ik'itish- American tribunal, which 
decided chiefly in favor of the United States (1903). By a 
reciprocity treaty with Cuba which went into effect in 1904, 
the duties on Cuban trade were somewhat lowered. 

582. The Isthmian Canal. — A French company many years 
ago began to dig a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama, 
but it failed through bad management before the work was 
half done. A United States commission made a survey of this 
route and also of the Nicaragua route across Central America, 
estimated the cost of building each canal, and gave careful 
consideration to the advantages of each route. The owners of 
the French canal having offered to sell for f 40,000,000, Con- 
gress in 1902 authorized the President to buy and complete it, 
provided satisfactory title and permanent control of the route 
could be secured. In all, about ^200,000,000 was provided for 
this work. In 1903 a treaty was negotiated with Colombia, 
giving the United States a permanent lease of a six-mile strip 
across the isthmus, for an annual rental of $250,000 and the 
payment of $10,000,000, but Colombia rejected the treaty. 
The Colombian province of Panama thereupon seceded (Novem- 
ber 3), and its independence was recognized by the United 
States and other nations. A treaty was soon made whereby 
the United States guaranteed the independence of Panama, 
and Panama ceded to the United States a ten-mile strip across 
the isthmus for the sums rejected by Colombia. The rights 
of the French company were then bought, and a United States 
commission began the work of completing the canal (1904). 

583. Election of Roosevelt. — There were almost as many 
parties as ever in the campaign of 1904. The Eepublicans 
indorsed the existing administration, demanded the continu- 
ance of the protective tariff and the gold standard, and nomi- 
nated Roosevelt for President and Charles W. Fairbanks for 
Vice President. The Democrats nominated Alton B. Parker 



488 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

and Henry G. Davis, and declared for a reduction of the tariff 
and against militarism and trusts, but were silent on the 
money question. Eoosevelt and Fairbanks were elected by a 
large majority. 

584. Interstate Commerce. — In spite of the act of 1887 
(p. 465) and some later laws, favored shippers were still given 
various unfair advantages in the service and charges of rail- 
roads. In 1906 Congress greatly enlarged the power of the 
Interstate Commerce Commission to supervise railroads, ex- 
press companies, and other common carriers operating in more 
than one state, and even authorized it to fix new freight and 
passenger rates in place of any it deemed to be unjust or un- 
reasonable. 

Besides this law to regulate interstate transportation, Con- 
gress passed several acts to regulate the quality of goods 
entering into interstate commerce. Eihcient inspection of meat- 
packing establishments was provided, at a cost of $ 3,000;000 
a year. Adulteration or misbranding of any foods, drugs, 
medicines, or liquors manufactured anywhere for sale in an- 
other state, was forbidden under heavy penalties. 

585. Intervention in Cuba. — One of the provisions added to 
the Cuban constitution (p. 484) gave the United States the 
right to intervene "for the maintenance of a government 
adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual 
liberty." This right was first exercised in the autumn of 1906, 
when the Cuban government failed to suppress an insurrection 
in the island. Efforts were first made, in vain, to bring about 
peace in Cuba without armed intervention; then the Cuban 
president resigned, our envoy Secretary Taft proclaimed him- 
self provisional governor of Cuba, United States troops were 
stationed at various points, and the insurgents peacefully dis- 
banded. The work of completing the restoration of order 
and confidence, preparatory to the holding of a new election 
under the Cuban constitution, was intrusted by the President 
to Charles E. Magoon, as provisional governor. The island 
was again restored to a Cuban government in 1909. 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 489 

586. The Panic of 1907. — For several years our country had 
enjoyed unusual prosperity. Never had the business of the 
country been better. A distrust of banks and banking insti- 
tutions, however, was suddenly developed. Belief that the 
money of depositors was being used in a reckless way became 
widespread, and when a run on some banks in New York city 
forced them to suspend, a panic swept over the country. Peo- 
ple everywhere made haste to withdraw their deposits, and the 
banks for a time were forced to refuse to cash checks for large 
sums. Business depression and hard times followed. 

587. The Currency Law. — In the midst of the panic the 
Sixtieth Congress met and in the course of its session enacted 
(for six years) a currency law. This is an emergency measure 
by which the national banks, when currency is scarce, may 
issue more under certain conditions. The total amount put 
out by all the national banks must not be greater than 
$500,000,000. Those using this currency must pay a heavy 
tax, which it is believed will lead to its prompt recall as soon 
as the emergency has passed. 

588. Election of Taft. — For the thirty-first time in our history 
electors of President and Vice President were chosen in 1908. 
Seven parties placed candidates in the field. The Republicans 
nominated William H. Taft and James S. Sherman ; the Demo- 
crats named William J. Bryan and John W. Kern. Candi- 
dates were also presented by the Prohibition, Populist, Socialist 
Labor, Socialist, and Independence parties. In many respects 
the Republican and Democratic platforms were alike. Both 
declared for revision of the tariff, postal savings banks, a 
bureau of mines and mining, protection of our citizens abroad, 
a better civil service, improvement of our inland waterways, 
preservation of our forests, and the admission of Arizona and 
New Mexico as separate states. The Democratic platform 
called for an income tax, the publication of the names of con- 
tributors to national campaign funds, legislation against private 
monopolies, and full control of interstate railways. Taft and 
Sherman were elected. 




490 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

589. Laws of 1909. — President Taft promptly called a 
special session of Congress, which after much deliberation 

passed a new tariff law. By this act 
some duties were lowered, and some 
were increased. A tax of one per cent 
was also laid on the net earnings of 
corporations in excess of $5000 a year. 
By joint resolution, there was proposed 
an amendment to the Constitution giv- 
ing Congress full power to levy a tax on 
incomes. During the next three years 
thirty-one states a.ccepted it, and fifteen 

William H. Talt. . ^ . . .. , . 

rejected it or failed to act on it. 

590. Arizona and New Mexico for some years had been seeking 
admission as states. In 1910 Congress made provision for their 
admission, and in 1912 they entered the Union, thus making 
the number of states forty-eight. In 1812 the Union was com- 
posed of eighteen states. The only one west of the Mississippi 
was Louisiana. The only one north of the Ohio Kiver was 
Ohio. 

591. Revolution in Mexico. — Across the boundary, in Mexico, 
in 1910, a rebellion against the rule of the Mexican president, 
Diaz, gradually gained headway. In March, 1911, President 
Taft ordered a large part of our army to Texas, to guard our 
border and be at hand in case of need. During some battles 
between the revolutionists and the troops of Diaz near the 
boundary. United States citizens w^ere wounded and killed by 
stray bullets, but in spite of this provocation Taft refused to 
intervene in the struggle, because such action would endanger 
the lives and property of many United States citizens residing 
in Mexico. Within a few weeks the revolutionists gained 
many victories, the contending parties signed terms of peace, 
and Diaz resigned. 

592. The Census. — The census of 1910 showed a population 
of nearly 92,000,000 in the main body of the United States. 
New York City then had over 4,750,000 inhabitants, or more 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 491 

than there were in the whole United States when Washington 
was President. One object of taking the census is to enable 
Congress to apportion representatives among the states. A new 
apportionment act was accordingly passed, and the number of 
representatives fixed at 433. But the admission of Arizona 
and New Mexico raised this to 435. 

593. Proposed Reciprocity with Canada. — In the autumn of 
1910 President Taft proposed an agreement with Canada that 
certain food products should be admitted into our country from 
Canada free of duty, and that the duties on certain manufactured 
goods should be reduced. This agreement was later confirmed 
by an Act of Congress. It was made on condition that Canada 
should make a like provision for the admission of our products 
and manufactures. But such opposition arose that the Parlia- 
ment was dissolved and the voters asked to elect another on the 
issue of reciprocity. The opposition triumphed and the agree- 
ment was not conlirmed by Canada. 

594. Elections of 1910. — In the elections for members of 
the House of Representatives in 1910 the Bepublicans were 
defeated and for the first time in sixteen years lost their 
majority in the House. So many state legislatures were elected 
by the Democrats that the Republican majority in the Senate 
was reduced from 28 to 10. 

595. Campaign Contributions. — In the same year (1910) 
Congress enacted a law requiring each candidate for election 
to the House of Representatives to publish the contributions 
of money he receives to aid him in his campaign. Many states 
have laws similar to this. Thus twenty-one states forbid cam- 
paign contributions by corporations, and require all candidates 
to publish receipts and expenditures after primary and general 
elections. Thirty-six require such publication after general 
elections. Some even limit the amount of money a candidate 
may spend for his nomination and election. 

596. Political Issues. — During the early part of the twen- 
tieth century many issues, long under discussion, came before 
the people of many states for political action. There are the 



492 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

initiative, referendum, recall, direct primaries, presidential 
preference vote, equal suffrage for women, and popular election 
of senators. 

597. Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. — The initiative is 
defined in the constitution of South Dakota, the first state to 
adopt it (in 1898), as " the right to propose measures, which 
measures the Legislature shall enact and submit to a vote of 
the electors." That is, if a certain per cent of the voters in the 
state sign petitions asking the legislature to draw up a law (for 
example, forbidding railroads to grant passes), the legislature 
must do so and then submit the law to popular vote, for final 
adoption or rejection. The referendum is the right of the 
people "to require that any law which the legislature may 
have enacted be submitted to popular vote." That is, the law 
enacted by the legislature is suspended till the voters decide, 
by their votes, whether it shall or shall not go into force. By 
1912 eleven states had adopted the initiative and referendum. 

The recall is a method of removing from office an elected 
officer before the end of his term. If a certain per cent of all 
the voters for candidates for the office in question petition for 
the election of a successor to the holder of that office, the elec- 
tion must be held. The holder of the office and the new can- 
didate are then voted for, and if the holder is defeated, he is 
"recalled" and must give up his office. This method of re- 
moval originated in Los Angeles, California, in 1903, has since 
spread widely, and now exists in some form in many states. 

598. Direct Primaries are x3opular modes of nominating, by 
ballot, candidates for public office. In very many states the 
candidates for local and state offices are nominated by this 
method. In eighteen states, moreover. United States senators 
may be nominated at primary elections. In some states the 
voters may even express their preference for a candidate for 
President. Thirty-five states have provisions for direct pri- 
maries. 

599. Equal Suffrage for Women is an old issue, which goes 
back to 1850; but the first state or territory to give women 



POLITICS SINCE 1880 493 

equal franchise with men was Wyoming (1869). By 1912 six 
states had done so; Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Wash- 
ington (in 1910), and California (in 1911). In all but eighteen 
states women have the suffrage in some form, as a right to vote 
for school boards, or on questions concerning taxation or issu- 
ing bonds. 

600. Popular Election of Senators. — Many states asked Con- 
gress to propose an amendment to the Constitution which will 
permit the people to elect United States senators. Congress 
finally did so in 1912, after long delays. Many of the states, 
meanwhile, had resorted to popular nomination of senators, 
and expect their legislatures to elect the men so nominated. 

SUMMARY 

1. The political issues before the country since 1880 have been of two 

general classes — industrial and iinancial. 

2. The industrial issues led to the formation of certain great organiza- 

tions, as the Farmers' Alliance, Knights of Labor, Patrons of 
Industry, etc.; and to the enactment of certain important laws, as 
the Interstate Commerce Acts, the Anti-Chinese laws, the Anti- 
Contract Labor law, and the establishment of the Labor Bureau. 

3. The financial issues were in general connected in some way with the 

agitation for free coinage of silver. 

4. These issues seriously affected both the old parties and produced 

others, as the Anti-monopoly party, the People's party, the Silver 
party, the National, the Socialist. 

5. In 1893 financial questions became so serious that a panic occurred, 

which forced the repeal of the purchase clause of the Sherman Act. 
In 1907 there was another panic. 

6. Among our foreign complications during this period were the ques- 

tion of the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, the Venezuela 
boundary dispute, the Cuban question, which finally involved us 
in a war with Spain, and the trouble with China arising from the 
Boxer outbreak. 

7. The chief events of the war with Spain were Dewey's naval vic- 

tory in Manila Bay, May 1 ; the battles of El Caney and San 
Juan, near Santiago, July 1 ; the naval battle of July 3 off Santi- 
ago ; the surrender of Santiago, July 14 ; the invasion of Porto 
Rico, near the end of July ; and the capture of Manila, August 13. 



494 THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE 

8. The war resulted in the cession of Porto Rico and the Philippines to 

our country, and in Spain's withdrawal from Cuba. 

9. The withdrawal of Spain from the Philippines was followed by an 

uprising of natives led by Aguinaldo ; but the insurrection was 
soon suppressed and a system of civil government established. 

10. By peaceful negotiation a treaty was perfected giving the United 

States control of the route for the Panama Canal. 

11. In recent years Congress has proposed two amendments to the Con- 

stitution : one giving Congress full power to levy an income tax, and 
the other providing for the popular election of senators. 

12. Several important political issues have come before certain of the 

states in recent years — such as the initiative, referendum, recall, 
direct primaries, and equal suffrage for women. 



APPENDIX 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE — 1776 



In Congress, July 4, 1776. 
the unanimous declaration of the thirteen united states of 

AMERICA 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one 
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with 
another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and 
equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle 
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they 
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are created 
equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 
rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, 
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ; that, when- 
ever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the 
right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new govern- 
ment, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers 
in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and 
happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long estab- 
lished, should not be changed for light and transient causes ; and, ac- 
cordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to 
suffer, while evils are siifferable, than to right themselves by abolishing 
the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of 
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a 
design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is 
their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for 
their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these 
colonies ; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter 
their former systems of government. The history of the present king 
of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all hav- 

1 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

ing in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these 
States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary 
for the public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing 
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be 
obtained ; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to 
them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large dis- 
tricts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of repre- 
sentation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable 
to tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfort- 
able, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole 
purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with 
manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to' cause others 
to be elected ; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, 
have returned to the people at large for their exercise ; the State remain- 
ing, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from with- 
out, and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States ; for that 
purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners ; refusing to 
pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions 
of new appropriations of lands. 

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent 
to laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their 
offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of 
officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the 
consent of our legislature. 

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, 
the civil power. 

He has combined, with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign 
to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his assent 
to their acts of pretended legislation : 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us : 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any mur- 
ders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States: 

2 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world : 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent : 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury : 

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses : 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring prov- 
ince, establishing therein an arbitrary government and enlarging its 
boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument ior 
introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies : 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and 
altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments : 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested 
with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protec- 
tion, and waging war against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and 
destroyed the lives of our people. 

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries 
to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun, 
with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most 
barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, 
to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their 
friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored 
to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, 
whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, 
sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress in 
the most humble terms : our repeated petitions have been answered only 
by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every 
act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We 
have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to 
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them 
of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have 
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured 
them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, 
which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. 
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We 
must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separa- 
tion, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in 
peace friends. 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in 
general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world 
for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of 
the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare. That 
these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent 
States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, 
an<i that all political connection between them and the state of Great 
Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as free and inde- 
pendent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, con- 
tract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things 
which independent States may of right do. And for the support of this 
declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, 
we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred 
honor. John Hancock. 



New Hampshire 
Josiah Bartlett, 
Wm. Whipple, 
Matthew Thornton. 

Massachusetts Bay 
Saml. Adams, 
John Adams, 
Robt. Treat Paine, 
Elbridge Gerry. 

Bhode Island 
Step. Hopkins, 
William Ellery. 

Connecticut 
Roger Sherman, 
Sam'el Huntington, 
Wm. Williams, 
Oliver Wolcott. 

New York 
Wm. Floyd, 
Phil. Livingston, 
Frans. Lewis, 
Lewis Morris. 



Neiv Jersey 
Richd. Stockton, 
Jno. Witherspoon, 
Fras. Hopkinson, 
John Hart, 
Abra. Clark. 

Pennsylvania 
Robt. Morris, 
Benjamin Rush, 
Benja. Franklin, 
John Morton, 
Geo. Clymer, 
Jas. Smith, 
Geo. Taylor, 
James Wilson, 
Geo. Ross. 

Delaware 
Csesar Rodney, 
Geo. Read, 
Tho. M'Kean. 

Mar]iland 
Samuel Chase, 
Wm. Paca, 
Thos. Stone, 
4 



Charles Carroll of Car- 
rollton. 

Virginia 
George Wythe, 
Richard Henry Lee, 
Th Jefferson, 
Benja. Harrison, 
Thos. Nelson, jr., 
Francis Lightfoot Lee, 
Carter Braxton. 

North Carolina 
Wm. Hooper, 
Joseph Hewes, 
John Penn. 

South Carolina 
Edward Rutledge, 
Thos. Heyward, Junr., 
Thomas Lynch, Junr., 
Arthur Middleton. 

Georgia 
Button Gwinnett, 
Lyman Hall, 
Geo. Walton. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES — 17871 



We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com- 
mon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Con- 
stitution for the United States of America. 

ARTICLE I 

Section 1, All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in 
a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and 
House of Representatives. 

Section 2. 1 The House of Representatives shall be composed of 
members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, 
and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for 
electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature. 

2 No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to 
the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United 
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in 
which he shall be chosen. 

3 Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the 
several States which may be included within this Union, according to 
their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the 
whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term 
of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other per- 
sons.2 The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after 
the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every 
subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. 
The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty 
thousand, but each State shall have at least one representative ; and until 
such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be 
entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Provi- 
dence Plantations one, Connecticut five. New York six. New Jersey four, 
Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten. North 
Carolina five. South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

4 When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the 
executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such 
vacancies. 

5 The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other 
officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

Section 3. 1 The Senate of the United States shall be composed of 
two senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof for six 
years ; and each senator shall have one vote. 

1 This reprint of the Constitution exactly follows the text of that In the 
Department of State at Washington, save in the spelling of a few words. 

2 The last half of this sentence was superseded by the 13th and 14th Amend- 
ments. (.See p. 16 following.) 

6 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

2 Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the 
first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three 
classes. The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at 
the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of 
the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, 
so that one third may be chosen every second year ; and if vacancies 
happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature 
of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments 
until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such 
vacancies. 

3 No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age 
of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and 
who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he 
shall be chosen. 

4 The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the 
Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

5 The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a president pro 
tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise 
the office of President of the United States. 

6 The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. 
When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. 
When the President of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall 
preside : and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two 
thirds of the members present. 

7 Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to 
removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of 
honor, trust or profit under the United States : but the party convicted 
shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and 
punishment, according to law. 

Section 4. 1 The times, places, and manner of holding elections for 
senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the 
legislature thereof ; but the Congress may at any time by law make or 
alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. 

2 The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such 
meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by 
law appoint a different day. 

Section 5. 1 Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns 
and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall con- 
stitute a quorum to do business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from 
day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent 
members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each House may 
provide. 

2 Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its 
members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, 
expel a member. 

3 Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time 
to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment 
require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House 
on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be 
entered on the journal. 

4 Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the 
consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other 
place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. 

6 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

Section 6. 1 The senators and representatives shall receive a com- 
pensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the 
Treasury of the United States. Tliey shall in all cases, except treason, 
felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their 
attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and 
returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either House, 
they shall not be questioned in any other place. 

2 No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he 
was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the 
United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof 
shall have been increased during such time ; and no person holding any 
office under the United States shall be a member of either House during 
his continuance in office. 

Section 7. 1 All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the 
House of Representatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with 
amendments as on other bills. 

2 Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and 
the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President 
of the United States ; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall 
return it, with his objections to that House in which it shall have origi- 
nated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed 
to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration two thirds of that House 
shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent," together with the objections, 
to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if 
approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a law. But in all 
such cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, 
and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be en- 
tered on the journal of each House respectively. If any bill shall not be 
returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it 
shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner 
as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent 
its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 

3 Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the 
Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a ques- 
tion of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United 
States ; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, 
or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate 
and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations pre- 
scribed in the case of a bill. 

Section 8. 1 The Congress shall have power to lay and collect 
taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the 
common defense and general welfare of the United States ; but all duties, 
imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States ; 

2 To borrow money on the credit of the United States ; 

3 To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several 
States, and with the Indian tribes ; 

4 To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on 
the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States ; 

5 To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and 
fix the standard of weights and measures ; 

6 To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and 
current coin of the United States ; 

7 To establish post offices and post roads ; 

7 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

8 To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for 
limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respec- 
tive vi^ritings and discoveries ; 

9 To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court ; 

10 To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high 
seas, and offenses against the law of nations ; 

11 To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make 
rules concerning captures on land and water ; 

12 To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that 
use shall be for a longer term than two years ; 

13 To provide and maintain a navy ; 

14 To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and 
naval forces ; 

15 To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the 
Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions ; 

16 To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and 
for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the 
United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the 
officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the disci- 
pline prescribed by Congress ; 

17 To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such 
district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular 
States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government 
of the United States, ^ and to exercise like authority over all places pur- 
chased by the consent of the legislature of the State in which the same 
shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and 
other needful buildings ; and 

18 To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying 
into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this 
Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department 
or officer thereof. 

Section 9. 1 The migration or importation of such persons as any 
of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be pro- 
hibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and 
eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceed- 
ing ten dollars for each person.^ 

2 The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, 
unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may re- 
quire it. 

3 No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 

4 No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion 
to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken, 

5 No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State, 

6 No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or reve- 
nue to the ports of one State over those of another : nor shall vessels 
bound to, or from, one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in 
another, 

7 No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of 
appropriations made by law ; and a regular statement and account of the 

1 The District of Columbia, which comes under these regulations, had not 
then been erected. 

2 A temporary clause, no longer in force. See also Article V, p, 12 following. 

8 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time 
to time. 

8 No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States : and no 
person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the 
consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, 
of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State. 

Section 10. i 1 No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or con- 
federation ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin money ; emit bills 
of credit ; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of 
debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the 
obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. 

2 No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts 
or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary 
for executing its inspection laws : and the net produce of all duties and 
imposts laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of 
the treasury of the United States ; and all such laws shall be subject to 
the revision and control of the Congress. 

3 No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of 
tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any 
agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or 
engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as 
will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE II 

Section 1. 1 The executive power shall be vested in a President of 
the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of 
four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same 
term, be elected, as follows 

2 Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof 
may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators 
and representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress : 
but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust or 
profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot 
for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the 
same State with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the per- 
sons voted for, and of the number of votes for each ; which list they shall 
sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the 
United States, directed to the president of the Senate. The president of the 
Senate, shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, 
open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person 
having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number 
be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if there be 
more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of 
votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by 
ballot one of them for President ; and if no person have a majority, then 
from the five highest on the list the said house shall in like manner choose 
the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken 
by States, the representation from each State having one vote ; a quorum 
for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of 
the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. 

1 See also the 10th, 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, pp. 15, 16 following. 

9 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the 
greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice President. But 
if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate 
shall choose from them by ballot the Vice President.^ 

3 The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and 
the day on which they shall give their votes ; which day shall be the same 
throughout the United States. 

4 No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United 
States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to 
the office of President ; neither shall any person be eligible to that office 
who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been four- 
teen years a resident within the United States. 

6 In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, 
resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said 
office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress 
may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or ina- 
bility, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer 
shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until 
the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 

6 The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a com- 
pensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the 
period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive 
within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any 
of them. 

7 Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the fol- 
lowing oath or affirmation: — "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I 
will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and 
will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitu- 
tion of the United States." 

Sectiont 2. 1 The President shall be commander in chief of the 
army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several 
States, when called into the actual service of the United States ; he may 
require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the 
executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their 
respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons 
for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

2 He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators present con- 
cur ; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of 
the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, 
judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, 
whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which 
shall be established by law : but the Congress may by law vest the 
appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the Presi- 
dent alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 

3 The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may 
happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which 
shall expire at the end of their next session. 

Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress infor- 
mation of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration 
such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient ; he may, on 

1 This paragraph superseded by the 12th Amendment, p. 15 following. 

10 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in 
case of disagreement between them with respect to the time of adjourn- 
ment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper ; ho 
shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers ; he shall take care 
that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers 
of the United States. 

Section 4. The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the 
United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and con- 
viction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III 

Section 1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested 
in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may 
from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme 
and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and 
shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compensation v^hich 
shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. 

Section 2. 1 The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and 
equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, 
and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority ; — to 
all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls ; — 
to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ; — to controversies to 
which the United States shall be a party ; — to controversies between two 
or more States ; — between a State and citizens of another State ; i — be- 
tween citizens of different States, — between citizens of the same State 
claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a State, or 
the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens or subjects. 

2 In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and con- 
suls, and those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall 
have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the 
Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, 
with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall 
make. 

3 The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by 
jury ; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall 
have been committed ; but when not committed within any State, the 
trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have 
directed. 

Section 3. 1 Treason against the United States, shall consist only in 
levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them 
aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the 
testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in 
open court. 

2 The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, 
but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture 
except during the life of the person attainted. 

ARTICLE IV 

Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the 
public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And 

J Spe the llth Amendment, p. 15 following. 
11 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such 
acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

Section 2. 1 The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privi- 
leges and immunities of citizens in the several States. 

2 A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, 
■who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall on de- 
mand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be 
delivered up to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 

3 No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws 
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regu- 
lation therein, be discharged, from such service or labor, but shall be 
deUvered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may 
be due.i 

Section 3, 1 New States may be admitted by the Congress into this 
Union ; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdic- 
tion of any other State ; nor any State be formed by the junction of two 
or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the legislatures 
of the States concerned as wt^l as of the Congress. 

2 The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful 
rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging 
to the United States ; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so con- 
strued as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular 
State. 

Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this 
Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them 
against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the execu- 
tive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence. 

ARTICLE V 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it 
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the 
application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall 
call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall 
be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when 
ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by 
conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of 
ratification may be proposed by the Congress ; Provided that no amend- 
ment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred 
and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the 
ninth section of the first article ; and that no State, without its consent, 
shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI 

1 All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the 
adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States 
under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. 

2 This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be 
made in pursuance thereof ; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, 
under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the 
land ; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in 
the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

i See the 13th Amendment, p. 16 followiug. 
12 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATED 



3 The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the mem- 
bers of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, 
both of tlie United States, and of the several States, shall be bound by 
oath or affirmation to support this Constitution ; but no religious test 
shall ever be recjuired as a qualification to any office or public trust under 
the United States. 

ARTICLE VII 

The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for 
the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the 
same. 

Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present the 
seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of the United 
States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto 
subscribed our names. 

Go: Washington — 

Presidt. and Deputy from Virginia 



New Hampshire 

John Langdon 
Nicholas Oilman 

Massachusetts 

Nathaniel Gorham 
Rufus King 

Connecticut 

Wm. Saml. Johnson 
Roger Sherman 

New York 
Alexander Hamilton 

Neio Jersey 

Wil : Livingston 
David Brearley 
Wm. Paterson 
Jona: Dayton 

Pennsylvania 

B. Eranklin 

Thomas Mifflin 
Robt. Morris 
Geo. Clymer 
Thos. Fitzsimons 
Jared IngersoU 
James Wilson 
Gouv Morris 



Attest 



Delaware 

Geo : Read 

Gunning Bedford Jun 
John Dickinson 
Richard Bassett 
Jaco : Broom 

Maryland 

James Mc Henry 

Dan of St. Thos Jenifer 

Danl. Carroll 

Virginia 

John Blair — 
James Madison Jr. 

North Carolina 

Wm. Blount 

Richd. Dobbs Spaight 

Hu Williamson 

South Carolina 

J. Rutledge, 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney 

Charles Pinckney 

Pierce Butler. 

Georgia 

William Few 
Abr Baldwin 
William Jackson Secretary. 



13 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

Articles in addition to, and amendment of, the Constitution of the United 
States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the legisla- 
tures of the several States pursuant to the fifth article of the original 
Constitution. 

ARTICLE II 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridging the freedom of speech, 
or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to 
petition the government for a redress of grievances. 

ARTICLE II 

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, 
the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. 

ARTICLE III 

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without 
the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be pre- 
scribed by law. 

ARTICLE IV 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, 
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be vio- 
lated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by 
oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, 
and the persons or things to be seized. 

ARTICLE V 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous 
crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in 
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual 
service in time of war or public danger ; nor shall any person be subject 
for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall 
be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be 
deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall 
private property be taken for public use without just compensation. 

ARTICLE VI 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a 
speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district 
wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have 
been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and 
cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; 
to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to 
have the assistance of counsel for his defense. 

ARTICLE VII 

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed 
twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact 
tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United 
States, than according to the rules of the common law. 

1 The first ten Amendments were adopted in 1791. 
14 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

ARTICLE VIII 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor 
cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

ARTICLE IX 

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be 
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

ARTICLE X 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to 
the people. ARTICLE XI ^ 

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend 
to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the 
United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of 
any foreign state. ARTICLE XIH 

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot 
for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an 
inhabitant of the same State with themselves ; they shall name in their 
ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person 
voted for as Vice President, and they shall make distinct lists of all per- 
sons voted for as President and of all persons voted for as Vice President, 
and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and 
certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United 
States, directed to the president of the Senate ; — The president of the 
Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, 
open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted ; — The person 
having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, 
if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; 
and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the 
highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as 
President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by 
ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be 
taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote ; a 
quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two 
thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary 
to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a 
President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before 
the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice President shall act 
as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability 
of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as 
Vice President shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority 
of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a 
majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall 
choose the Vice President ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two 
thirds of the whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole 
number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally 
ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

1 Adopted in 1798. 2 Adopted in 1804. 

15 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

ARTICLE XIII 1 

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a pun- 
ishment for crime v^hereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall 
exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by ap- 
propriate legislation. 

ARTICLE XIV 2 

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and 
subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of 
the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law 
which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United 
States ; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, 
without due process of law ; nor deny to any person within its jurisdic- 
tion the equal protection of the laws. 

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several 
States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number 
of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right 
to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice 
President of the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive 
and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, 
is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one 
years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, 
except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representa- 
tion therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such 
male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one 
years of age in such State. 

Section 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, 
or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or mili- 
tary, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously 
taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United 
States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judi- 
cial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, 
shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given 
aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of 
two thirds of each House, remove such disability. 

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, author- 
ized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties 
for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. 
But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt 
or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the 
United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave ; 
but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate 
legislation, the provisions of this article. 

ARTICLE XV 3 

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall 
not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account 
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by 
appropriate legislation. 

1 Adopted in 18G5. 2 Adopted in 1868. s Adopted in 1870. 

16 



STATE CONSTITUTIONS 

We have seen (pa?;o 155), that in 1776 the Continental Congress advised 
the people of the colonies to form governments for themselves, and tliat 
the people of the colonies accordingly adopted constitutions and became 
sovereign and independent states. Of the thirteen original state constitu- 
tions, none save that of Massachusetts is now in force, and even that 
has been amended. Changes in political ideas, changes in the conditions 
of life due to the wonderful progress of our country, have forced the 
people to alter, amend, and often remake their state constitutions. 

All our state constitutions now in force divide the powers of govern- 
ment among three departments, — legislative, executive, and judicial. 

The Legislative Department — called in some states the Legislature, 
in others the General Assembly, and in still others the General Court — 
consists in every state of two branches or houses, usually known as the 
Senate and House of Representatives. In six states the legislature meets 
annually, and in all the rest biennially ; the members of both branches 
are everywhere elected by the people, and serve from one to four years. 
In most states a session of the legislature is limited to a period of from 
forty to ninety days. The legislature enacts the laws (which must not 
conflict with the Constitution of the United States, the treaties, the acts 
of Congress, or the constitution of the state) ; but the powers of the two 
houses are not equal in all the states. In some the House of Represen- 
tatives has the sole right to originate bills for the raising and the expendi- 
ture of money, and in some the Senate confirms or rejects appointments 
to office made by the Governor. 

The Governor is the executive ; is elected for a term of years varying 
from one to four ; and is in duty bound to see that the laws are enforced. 
To him, in nearly all the states, are sent the acts of the legislature to be 
signed if he approves, or vetoed if he disapproves. In some states the 
Governor may veto parts or items of an act and approve the rest. He 
is commander in chief of the militia ; commissions all officers whom he 
appoints ; and in most of the states may pardon criminals. 

The Judicial Branch of government is composed of the state courts, 
whose judges are appointed, or elected for a long term of years. 

These three branches of government — the executive, the legislative, 
and the judicial — are distinct and separate, and none can exercise the 
powers of the others. No judge can enact a law ; no legislature can try 
a suit ; no executive can perform the duties of a judge or a legislature. 

When the thirteen colonies threw off their allegiance to the British 
Crown, the government set up by each was supreme within the limits 
of the state. Each could coin money, impose duties on goods imported 
from abroad or from other states, fix the legal rate of interest, make laws 
regulating marriage and divorce and the descent of property, and do any- 
thing else that any supreme government could do. 

But when the states united in forming a strong general government 
by adopting the Constitution, they did not give up all their powers of 
government. They intrusted part of them to the Federal government, 
and retained the rest as before. In other words, the people of each 
state, instead of continuing to have one government, adopted a double 

17 



STATE CONSTITUTIONS 

government, state and Federal, according to the plan laid down in the 
Constitution. It is the Federal Constitution that makes the division of 
powers between the nation and the separate states. The Constitution, 
for instance, gives the Federal government the powers of coining money 
and laying import duties, and forbids these powers to the states ; but 
the rate of interest, marriage and divorce, and the descent of property 
are matters not mentioned in the Constitution, and concerning which the 
states retain the power to make laws. 

In many cases it is hard to decide whether a state has power to do a 
certain thing. Whenever the question turns on the interpretation of the 
Federal Constitution, it is decided by the United States courts. The 
Federal Constitution and the laws and treaties made in accordance with it 
are supreme in case of any conflict with a state constitution or law. 

The powers of government exercised by the states are more numerous, 
and affect the individual citizen in more ways, than those of the nation. 
The force of contracts ; the relations of employer and employed, husband 
and wife, parent and child ; the administration of schools ; and the pun- 
ishment of most crimes, are matters controlled by the state. A much 
larger amount of taxes is imposed by the states than by the nation. 

Local Governments. — Moreover, the local government of counties, 
towns, and cities is entirely under the control of the state. State con- 
stitutions contain many provisions in regard to this local government, 
but the legislature can make laws affecting it more or less greatly in 
the various states. In the local government of a city, town, or county 
there is to some extent a distribution of powers among legislative, execu- 
tive, and judicial officers. The legislative function is exercised by the 
city council or board of aldermen, the town trustees (or by the whole 
body of voters), and the county board of supervisors or commissioners ; 
the executive, by the city mayor, the county sheriff, and other officers ; 
and the judicial, by various city courts, justices of the peace, and county 
courts. 

Political Bights and Duties. — The political rights and duties of citizens 
depend chiefly on the state constitutions and laws. Elections, both state 
and national, are conducted by state officers. The state prescribes who 
shall have the right to vote, and the various states differ greatly in this 
respect. Congress grants citizenship by a uniform rule of naturalization ; 
but some states allow aliens to vote (on certain conditions), and some 
provide that a naturalized citizen can not vote until a certain period has 
elapsed after his naturalization. In some states women may vote ; in some 
only those men who have certain property or educational qualifications. 

The right to vote is the qualification for holding most offices ; additional 
qualifications are prescribed for very important offices, in the Federal and 
state constitutions. Thus, none but a native may be a President or Vice 
President of the United States, nor may a citizen under thirty years of 
age be a member of the United States Senate. Besides voting and office 
holding, the most important political rights and duties of citizens are to 
sit on juries and to serve in the army. The qualifications of jurors in 
state courts are prescribed by state authority, and in national courts by 
national authority. Congress has the exclusive power to raise armies, and 
in the Civil War hundreds of thousands of citizens came under national 
authority in connection with the duty to bear arms. The militia, how- 
ever, is commanded by state officers, and iu time of peace is under the 
control of the separate states. 

18 



INDEX 



Abolition, laws, 185, 429 ; societies, 313 ; 
opposition to, 336 ; Compromise Bill, 340 ; 
issue of Civil War, 895. 

Acadia, extent of, 60 ; struggle for, 76- 
83. 

Act, of 1870, 446, 448 ; of 1873, 448 ; of 1875, 
446, 448, 449, 471. 

Adams, 238. 

Adams, Alvin, 369. 

Adams, Charles F., 335. 

Adams, John, defends soldiers, 119 ; Decla- 
ration of Independence, 132 ; negotiates 
treaty, 149 ; vice president, 171 ; president, 
209-215. 

Adams, John Quincy, opposes European 
colonization, 262-264 ; presidential nominee, 
277, 294 n. 1 ; president, 297-301 ; opposed 
to slavery, 314. 

Adams, John Q., vice-pres. nominee, 442. 

Adams, Samuel, 149. 

Adams Express Company, 369. 

" Adams men," 300, 301. 

"Administration men," 301. 

Alabama, 413, 450. 

Alabama, admitted, 274 ; secedes, 378 ; re- 
admitted, 431. 

Alabama claims, 450. 

Alaska, boundaries, 322, 487 ; purchased, 451. 

Albany, Dutch at, 37 : colonial congress at, 
86. 

Alexandria, 87, 99, 104. 

Aigonquins, 60, 68, 70. 

Alien and Sedition laws, 211, 212. 

Allegheny Eiver, French on, 81-84. 

Allen, Ethan, 128. 

AUison amendment, 449. 

Amendments to Constitution, ten, 202 ; 
twelfth, 216; proposed thirteenth, 381; 
thirteenth, 429 ; fourteenth, 430, 431 ; fif- 
teenth, 440, 442. 

America, discovery of, 11-14; naming of, 
14-17. 

American Antislavery Society, 313. 

American Fur Trading Company, 331. 

American party, 363. 

American Republican party, 353, 354 ; dis 
appears, 355, 363. 

Amherst, 89. 

Amnesty, proclamation issued, 427 ; politi- 
cal issue, 437, 439, 442. 
Anaesthesia discovered, 373, 374. 
Anderson, Robert, 379, 382, 383, 426. 
Andre, Major John, 144. 



Annapolis, Md., founded, 36; riot at, 116; 
trade convention at, 165. 

Annapolis, Port Royal called, 79, 80. 

Annual message, 216. 

Anti-Chinese movement, 443, 444, 463-465. 

Anti-Federalists, 202, 203. 

.Vnti-Nebraska men, 353. 

Autietam, battle of, 394, 395. 

Antimasonic party, 300, 301, 306. 

Antislavery movement, 312-315, 334, 343, 
347, 350. 351. 

Appomattox Courthouse, 406. 

Arbitration, policy, 450, 461 ; between Eng- 
land and Venezuela, 474, 475. 

.Vrgall, Governor, 33. 

Argus, 237. 

Arizona, territory, 334 n. 1, 436; admission 
of, 490 ; silver interests, 472. 

.Vrkansas, becomes territory, 277 ; admitted, 
366; secedes, 386; Confederates in, 391; 
reconstruction, 428 ; readmitted. 431. 

Army of the Cumberland, 402; disbanded, 
407. 

Army of the Potomac, peninsular campaign, 
392-394 ; at Gettysburg, 396, 397 ; in Wil- 
derness campaign. 402, 404, 405, 406 ; dis- 
banded, 407. 

Army of Tennessee, 399. 

.Vrmy of V^irginia, 394. 

Arnold, Benedict, attacks Quebec, 131 ; at 
Saratoga, 141; treason of, 144; in British 
service, 146. 

Articles of Confederation, 155, 158, 159, 163, 
167, 168, 204. 

Ashburton, Lord, 317. 

Assumption of state debts, 201. 

Astor, John Jacob, 221. 

Astoria founded, 221. 

Atchison settled, 350, 351 n. 1. 

Atlanta burned, 402. 

Atlantic cable, 374, 375, 459. 

Auburn settled, 267. 

Aurania settled, 433. 

Austin, Moses, 320. 

Austin, Stephen, 320. 

B 

Bahama Islands, 13. 

Balboa, 17, 19. 

Baltimore, founded, 36 ; in colonial times, 

99 ; Congress at, 137 ; attacked. 238; route 

to the West, 285; convention at, 361; 

insurgents in, 387 ; labor congress in, 

443. 



19 



INDEX 



Baltimore, Lord, 84, 35, 36. 

Banks, United States, see National Bank ; 
state, see State Banks. 

Banks, N. P., presidential nominee, 354; in 
Civil War, 392, 3i)4. 

Bannock City founded, 436. 

Barry, John, 147. 

Barron, Commander, 227. 

Baton Koiig-e, captured, 150, 392 n. 1 ; Span- 
iards claim, 152. 

"Battle above the Clouds," 399. 

Bean, William, 191. 

Bear State republic, 332, 333. 

Beauregard, General, 382, 383, 388. 

Bell, John, 363. 

Belmont, 286, 287. 

Belpre settled, 194. 

Bemis Heights, battle of, 141. 

BenningtoH, battle of, 139, 140. 

Benton, Thomas H., senator, 294 n, 1, 308, 
329, 332. 

Bents Fort, 329. 

Bercemi, 213. 

Berkeley, Lord, 55. 

Berlin Decree, 225, 229, 230. 

Bidwell, John, 470. 

Bienville, Celoron de, 81-83. 

Big Bottom massacre, 242. 

Bills of credit, 199, 200. 

Biloxi settled, 79. 

Bimetallism, 254, 472. 

Birney, James Gillespie, presidential nomi- 
nee, 312, 315, 324; aboUtionist, 313, 314. 

Black, James, 444. 

Black Rock burned, 235. 

Bladen sburg, battle of, 238. 

Blaine, James G., 465. 

Blair, Francis P., 439. 

Bland-Allison Silver Bill, 448, 449, 467. 

Blockade, of 1814, 237-239; Southern, 411, 
412. 

Blockade runners, 411, 412. 

Blue Lodges, 851. 

Bonded debt, of 1866, 437; of 1894, 473. 

Bonds, United States, 420, 438, 439, 448, 461, 
466, 471, 473. 

Bonhomme Richard, 149. 

Bonneville, Captain, 331. 

Boom towns, 458. 

Boone, Daniel, 191. 

Boonesboro settled, 191. 

Booth, John Wilkes, assassinates Lincoln, 
426. 427. 

Bordentown, 279. 

Border states secede, 386, 387. 

Boscawen, 89. 

Bosto7i, 213, 473. 

Boston, founded, 47 ; in colonial times, 99 ; 
riot, 116; massacre, 118, 119; tea party, 
120; Port Bill, 120, 121 ; occupied by Brit- 
ish, 127-131 ; evacuated, 131 ; in 1790, 178 ; 
fire, 445. 

Boston Neck, 126. 

Boston Sentinel, 260. 

Boundary, of United States in 1783, 150, 151 ; 
in 1815, 241; Canadian, 261, 316, 450; 
Spanish, 261 ; of Alaska, 322, 487 ; of Texas, 
326, 329, 340, 341 ; map showing territorial 
growth of United States, 452, 453. 



Boxer, 237. 

Braddock, Edward, 87, 88. 

Bradford, William, 41, 44 n. 1. 

Bradstreet, 89. 

Bragg, 390, 391, 399. 

Brandywine, battle of, 138. 

Brazil discovered, 16. 

Breckinridge, John C, vice president, 355; 
presidential candidate, 361. 

Breeds Hill, battle of, 129, 130. 

Brewster, William, 41. 

British, see English. 

British Columbia, boundary of, 450o 

British Guiana, 474. 

Brown, B. Gratz, 442. 

Brown, Jacob, 235. 

Brown, John, 359. 

Brown, Itobert, 40. 

Brownists, 40-46, 48. 

Brush, 459. 

Bryan, WiUiam J., 475, 476, 485, 489. 

Buchanan, James, president, 355-363; atti- 
tude toward seceded states, 378, 379. 

Buckner, General Simon B., 389, 475. 

Buell, General, 390, 391. 

Buena Vista, battle of, 328. 

Buffalo burned, 235. 

Bull Run, battles of, 387, 388, 394. 

Bunker Hill, battle of, 129, 130. 

Bunker Hill Monument, 131. 

Burgoyne, John, 139, 141. 

Burke, P. B., 369. 

Burlingame, Anson, 444. 

Burnside, General, 394, 396. 

Burr, Aaron, 215. 

Business depression of '93, 472, 473. 

Butler, 143. 

Butler, A. P., 336. 

Butler, Benjamin F., 392, 465. 

Butler, William O., 335. 

Butterfield overland stage, 434. 



Cabinet, first, 198. 

Cable, Atlantic, 374, 375, 459. 

Cabots, 14. 

Cabral, 14, 16. 

Calhoun, John C, in War Congress, 281, 294 
n. 1 ; vice president, 297, 298 ; favors nulli- 
fication, 303, 305 ; on slavery, 335 ; on Com- 
promise Bill, 340 ; death of, 341 . 

Cahfornia. Fremont in, 329-333; independ- 
ent, 332, 333; slavery in, 334; gold dis- 
coveries, 336-338 ; applies for admission, 
338, 340, 341 ; settled and admitted, 368 ; 
Pacific Railroad to, 434, 435. 

Calverts, 34, 35, 36. 

Cambridge settled, 47. 

Camden, battle of, 144. 

Canada, ceded to British, 91 ; boundary of, 
261, 316, 450 ; fisheries, 450, 451. 

Canals, 251, 282-285, 366, 435. 

Canonchet, 72. 

Can so attacked, 80. 

Cape Ann colony, 46. 

Cape Breton, 91. 

Cape Cod named, 29. 

Cape Fear River settlements, 54. 



20 



INDEX 



Captains of industry, 400. 

(Jarlbbean Islands, 14 n. 1. 

Oarleton, Sir Guy, 181. 

Carolinas, settled, 54, 55, 57 ; see North and 
South Carolina. 

Carpetbagg-ers, 440. 

Carson, Kit, 382. 

Carteret, Sir George, 55. 

Cartier, Jac(iues, 60. 

Cass, Lewis, 835. 

Castine massacre, 77. 

Castle Pinckney, 379. 

Catholics in Maryland, 34-86. 

Cayuga Indians, 68. 

Cedar Creek, battle of, 405. 

Cedar Mountain, battle of, 394. 

Celoron de Bienville, 81-83. 

Census, first, 176 ; of 1810, 246 ; of 1870, 436 ; 
of 1900. 484. 

Central Pacific Railroad, 435. 

Cerro Gordo, battle of, 328. 

Certificates, national, 200. 

Chadds Ford, battle of, 138. 

Chambers, B. J., 462. 

Chambersburg burned, 404. 

Champlain, 60, 70. 

Chancellorsville, battle of, 396. 

Chapultepec, battle of, 328. 

Charles I., grants Maryland, 34, 35 ; perse- 
cutes Puritans, 47 ; beheaded, 107. 

Charles II., grants Connecticut, 52; grants 
CaroUna, 54, 55, 57 ; grants Pennsylvania, 
56. 

Charleston, founded, 54; attacked, 58; in 
colonial times, 99, 105; opposes tea tax, 
120 ; captured, 143, 144, 426 ; nominating 
convention, 360. 

Charleston harbor, 379. 

Charlestown, settled, 47. 

Charlestown Neck, 128. 

ChartCF colonies, 105, 106. 

Charters, of 1606, 29, 30; of 1609, 32-34; of 
1629, 46. 

Chase, Salmon P., 347. 

Chattanooga, battle of, 398, 399. 

Cherokee Indians, 68, 242. 

Cherry Creek, 433. 

Cherry Valley massacre, 143. 

Chempeake, 227, 237. 

Chesapeake and Delawrare Canal, 251. 

Chester, 138. 

Chicago, Republican conventions, 363, 462; 
in 1832, 365; in 1840, 365; labor congress, 
443 ; convention of '69, 444 ; fire, 445 ; meat 
packing, 455 ; Bimetallic League, 472. 

Chickahominy River, 393. 

Chickamauga, battle of, 398, 399. 

Chickasaw Indians. 68. 

China, disorder in, 484. 

Chinese Exclusion acts, 464, 465. 

Chinese immigration, 443, 444, 447, 464, 470. 

Chippewa, battle of. 235. 

Choctaw Indians, 68. 

Church of New England, 48. 

Churubusco, battle of, 328. 

Cincinnati, in 1802, 194; in 1810, 245; con- 
vention of 1872, 442 ; labor congress, 448 ; 
convention of 1876, 447. 

Circuit courts, 197, 198. 



Civil Rights Bill, 430. 

Civil service reform, 442, 446, 447, 461, 462, 
464. 

Civil War, 378-418 ; cost of, 419-424 ; results 
of, 454. 

Clark, General George Rogers, 143, 160. 

Clark, William, 219, 3.31. 

Clay, Henry, speaker, 231, 294 n. 1 ; presi- 
dential nominee, 297, 324; secretary of 
state, 800; Compromise Tariff, 305; Infant 
School, 307 ; Compromise Bill, 339-341 ; 
death of, 352 n. 1. 

Clermont, 258. 

Cleveland, population in 1840, 366. 

Cleveland, Stephen Grover, president, 465, 
466, 470-475. 

CUnton, George, 229, 316 n. 2. 

CUnton, Governor De Witt, 282, 283, 294. 

Clinton, Sir Henry, campaigns, 142, 143, 144, 
146. 

Cobb, Howell, 380. 

Cochrane, General John, 425, 426. 

Cockburn, Admiral, 288. 

Cohoes founded, 290. 

Coin at a premium, 438. 

Coinage of gold and silver, 254, 467, 469, 470. 

Cold Harbor, battle of, 404. 

Colfax, Schuyler, 439. 

Collins steamship line, 374. 

Colonial, life, 93-108 ; forms of government, 
105-108, 118, 122, 155. 

Colonies, Spanish. 23, 24 ; English, 25-39, 40- 
58 ; Dutch, 37-39 ; Swedish, 38, 39. 

Colorado, acquired, 334 n. 1 ; a territory, 436 ; 
admitted, 447, 457 n. 1 ; silver interests, 
472, 475. 

Colt, 290. 

Columbia CenUnel, 295. 

Columbia River discovered, 219, 220. 

Columbus, Christopher, 11-14. 

Columbus, Ky., evacuated, 389, 

Columbus, O., population in 1840, 366; con- 
ventions, 443, 444. 

Commerce, in colonial times, 101-103 ; about 
1810, 248, 249; destroyers, 412^14. See 
also Trade, 

Committee of Safety, 126. 

Compromise, Missouri, 276 ; tariff, 305 ; of 
1850, 339, 340, 341, 342, 346, 347 n. 2, 352; 
of Crittenden, 380, 381. 

Compromises in Constitution, 167, 168. 

Comptroller of the currency, 421. 

Concord, battle of, 127, 128. 

Confederate cruisers, 413, 414, 418, 449, 450. 

Confederate States, formed, 378 ; during civil 
war, 378-400 ; capital of, 386 ; end of, 406, 
407; military supplies of, 411 ; debts and 
losses of, 422-424 ; congress dissolved, 428. 

Congress, 415, 416. 

Congress, under Articles of Confederation, 
159, and see Continental Congress ; recon- 
struction plan of, 430, ■HX ; gives land 
grants, 435 ; acts of 1862 and 1863, 438. 

Congress, National Labor, 443. 

Connecticut, settled, 50-53 ; in cMonial times, 
101, 102; Reserve, 160. 

Conscription, Confederate, 423, 424. 

Constellation, 213. 

Constitution, 236, 237. 



21 



INDEX 



Constitution of U. S., 165, 166, 168, 169, 170, 

176 n. 1 ; amendments to, see Amendments. 

Printed in Appendix, pp. 5-16. 
Constitutional Union party, 363. 
Continental army, 129. 
Continental Congress, 121, 122, 128, 129, 155, 

158, 163, 164, 165, 166, 169, 170, 198, 202, 

254, 274. 
Continental debt, 197, 198, 199, 202. 
Continental money, 199, 200, 246. 
Contract labor, 464. 
Contraction policy, 438. 
Contreras, battle of, 328. 
Conway cabal, 141. 
Cooper. Peter, 447. 
Corinth, 389, 390; battle of, 391. 
Cornwallis, Lord, 136, 137, 144, 146. 
Coronado, 21, 22. 
Corporations, rise of, 459, 460 ; opposition to, 

461, 464, 465, 470. 
Cortereal, 14. 
Cortes, 19, 20. 
Cotton gin, 195, 248. 
Cotton industry, 194-196, 411, 454. 
Cotton -seed oil, 455. 
Council Bluffs, Mormons at, 292. 
Council for New England, 44, 46, 47, 
Coureurs de hois, 70, 71, 78. 
Court of Admiralty, 225. 
Courts of U. S. established, 197, 198. 
Cowpens, battle of, 145, 146. 
CranfiU, J. B., 470. 
Crawford, William H., 295, 297, 300. 
Credit Strengthening Act, 448. 
Creek Indians, 68, 260, 261. 
Crittenden's Compromise, 380, 381. 
Croghan, Major, 234. 

Crown Point, founded, 80 ; English at, 88, 90. 
Cuba, 361,476-484, 488. 
Culpeper Courthouse, 404. 
Cumberland, 415, 416. 
Cumberland Koad, 252. 
Cunard steamship line, 374. 
Currency, U. S., 253, 254, 420, 421, 445, 446, 

461, 470, 472. 
Curtis, Gen. S. K., 389, 391. 
Customs Commissioners, 117. 



Dakota Territory, formed, 436: population 

of, 456. 
Dallas, George Mifllin, 322, 324. 
Dalton, battle of, 399, 402. 
Daniel, WiUiam, 465. 
Davenport, John, 51. 
Davie, William E., 214. 
Davis, David, 443. 
Davis, Jefferson, president of Confederacy, 

378, 379, 380, 402, 404 ; capture of, 407, 428. 
Dayton, William L., 355. 
De Soto, 22. 
Deane, Silas, 148. 
Dearborn's expedition, 233. 
Debt, national, after the Revolutionary War, 

198, 199 ; in 1790, 200, 246 ; in 1801, 309 ; 

in 1885, 310 ; new national, 311, 312 ; dur- 



ing Civil War, 419, 420, 421, 422 ; in 1866, 

437-439 ; in 1887, 461, 466 ; in 1894, 473. 
Declaration of Independence, 132, 134, 135 ; 

in Vermont, 243. See Appendix, pp. 1-4. 
Declaration of Pvights, 115, 121, 122. 
DeKalb, 149. 
Delaware, claims in, 38, 39 ; sold to Penn, 56, 

57 ; in colonial times, 101, 102, 103 ; slavery 

in, 429. 
Delaware, Lord, 32. 
Delaware Indians, 68, 72. 
Delegates, territorial, 162, 351 n. 2. 
Democratic party, 203, 260, 306, 311, 315-317, 

322, 324, 335. 346, 352, 353, 356, 357, 360, 

361, 426, 435, 439, 442, 446, 447, 462, 465, 

466, 470, 475, 485. 
Democratic Republicans, 300, 306. 
Denver, settled, 433, 434, 435; convention at, 

472. 
Department of Labor established, 465. 
Detroit, settled, 80, 191 ; surrender of, 233. 
Dewey, Commodore, 478. 
Dingley Tariff, 476. 
Dinwiddie, Governor Robert, 83-35. 
Direct tax, 214. 
District courts, 197, 198. 
District of Columbia, 215; slavery in, 814, 

336, 339, 340, 341. 
Dixon, J?remiah, 56 n. 1. 
Dole, president of Hawaiian Republic, 474. 
Donelson, Andrew Jackson, 354. 
Donelson, John, 191. 
Dorchester settled, 47, 50. 
Dorchester Heights captured, 131. 
Douglas, Stephen A., Nebraska Bill, 847 ; 

debates with Lincoln, 358, 359 ; elected 

senator, 359 ; presidential nominee, 361. 
Dover riot, 116. 
Dow, Neal, 462. 
Drake, 148. 

Drake, Sir Francis, 26, 27. 
Draper, Dr. John W., 373. 
Dred Scott decision, 355, 356, 357, 859, 860, 

363. 
Duane, William J., 307 n. 3. 
Duluth founded, 456. 
Duquesne, Marquis, 84. 
Durham massacre, 77. 

Dutch, possessions, 9, 55 ; settlements, 36-39. 
Dutch West India Company, 87-39. 



E 



Earle, Thomas, 312, 315. 

Early, Jubal, 404, 405. 

East India Company, 119. 

East Indies, trade with, 9-11. 

Eastern Colonies, occupations, etc., 101, 102. 

Eastport captured, 237. 

Edmunds Law, 464. 

Electoral college, 170, 171, 209, 210, 258, 301, 

439, 463. 
Electoral commission, 447, 448. 
Electricity, 94, 459. 
Elizabeth, Queen, 27, 40. 
Elizabeth City captured, 418. 
Ellmaker, Amos, 306. 
Ellsworth, Oliver, 214. 



22 



INDEX 



Emancipation, agitation, 818, 814 ; Proclama- 
tion, 894-396, 4'2y ; cost of, 424. 

Embargo laws, 2'28, 229, 249. 

Emigration, western, 241, 242, 266-277, 433, 
434. 

Endicott, John, 4fi, 49. 

English, possessions, 9, 91 ; settlements, 25- 
39,40-58; relations with France, 76-91; 
relations with Indians, 70, 71 ; government 
of colonies, 105-1 OS; attitude to colonies, 
110-122; war with colonies, 126-152; at 
war with French, 206, 224-231 ; disputed 
right of trade, 208 ; favor South American 
repubUcs, 264; favor South, 411-414, 449, 
450 ; Veneziielan boundary question, 474. 

English, William H., 462. 

English fur companies, 323. 

Enterprise, 213, 237. 

Era of Good Feeling, 260. 

Ericsson, Captain John, 415. 

Ericsson, Leif, 11. 

Erie Canal, 282-285. 

Erie Indians, 68. 

Essex, 237. 

Europe, claims in America, 9, 262-265 ; atti- 
tude during Civil War, 383, 395, 449, 450. 

Evans, Oliver, 253. 

Everett, Edward, 863. 

Exeter massacre, 77. 

Explorations, European, 9-24; French, 60- 
65 ; Western, 219-221 ; Northwestern, 329, 
331, 332, 333. 

Express, pony, 434. 

Express companies formed, 869. 



Fair Oaks, battle of, 898. 

Fairbanks, 289. 

Farewell Address of President Washington, 
209. 

Farmers' Alliance, 468, 469. 

Farragut, Admiral, 391, 392, 418. 

Federal Hall, 171, 173. 

Federal money, 254, 255. 

Federalist party, 170, 202-218, 229, 259, 260, 
295, 296. 

Ferdinand, King, aids Columbus, 13. 

Field, Cyrus W., 874, 875. 

Field, James G., 469. 

Fifteenth Amendment, 440, 442. 

" Fifty-four forty or fight," 324. 

Fillmore, Millard, vice president, 335 ; presi- 
dent, 341-343 ; presidential nominee, 354, 
355. 

Financial, distress of '37, 310, 311 ; condition 
after Civil War, 4;37-439 ; policv, Grant's, 
448; questions after '88, 466-469. 

First Continental Congress. 121, 122. 

Fiscal Bank of United States, 316. 

Fiscal Corporation, 316. 

Fishery question, 4.50, 451. 

Fitch, John, 190.252. 

Five Nations, or Iroquois Indians, 68, 72, 
143 n. 2. 

Flag, national, 140 ; American naval, 147. 

Flamborough Head, 148. 

Florida, 413, 450. 



Florida, discovered, 17 ; a British possession, 
91; East and West, 110; a Spanish pos- 
session, 151, 152; purchased, 261 ; a terri- 
tory, 278, 366 ; admitted, 366 ; secedes, 878; 
readmitted, 431. 

Foote, Flag Olliccr, 38S, 389, 391. 

Force Act, of 1809, 228 ; Jackson's, 304, 805; 
of 1871, 442. 

Foreign labor, 464. 

Foreigners, see Immigration. 

Fort Assumption built, 80. 

Fort Boise, 4^36. 

Fort Chartres built, 80. 

Fort Cr^vecctur built, 64. 

Fort Cumberland, 88. 

Fort Donelson captured, 888, 389. 

Fort Duquesne built, 85; 87, 88; captured, 89. 

Fort Edward, 139. 

Fort Erie captured, 235. 

Fort Fisher captured, 418. 

Fort Frontenac captured, 89. 

Fort Hall founded, 331. 

Fort Henry cajitured, 388. 

Fort Le BcJeuf built, 83 ; 84, 85. 

Fort Leavenworth, 329. 

Fort Lee attacked, 135. 

Fort Loyal massacre, 77. 

Fort McAllister captured, 408. 

Fort McHenry bombarded, 238. 

Fort Macon captured, 418. 

Fort Meigs, battle of, 234. 

Fort Monroe, 403. 

Fort Morgan, 418. 

Fort Moultrie, 379. 

Fort Nassau built, 37, 88. 

Fort Natchitoches, 80. 

Fort Necessity built, 86. 

'Fort Orange built, 87. 

Fort Pillow captured, 389. 

Fort Pitt, 89. 

Fort Rosalie founded, 80. 

Fort St. Louis built, 64, 65, 76. 

Fort Stanwix besieged, 140, 141. 

Fort Stephenson, battle of, 234. 

Fort Sumter, 379 ; battles of, 382, 888, 418. 

Fort Ticonderoga. 89, 90, 128, 189. 

Fort Tombeckbee built, 80. 

Fort Toulouse founded, 80. 

Fort Venango built, 88. 

Fort Washington captured, 135. 

"Forty-niners," 33S. 

Fourteenth Amendment, 430, 431. 

Fractional currency, 420, 421, 437, 446. 

Franchise right, 182, 294; interference with, 
441, 442. 

Franklin, Benjamin, during the French War, 
85, 86, 87; ■exi)eriments, 94, 95; Declara- 
tion of Independence, 132 ; ambassador to 
France, 142, 148, 149. 

Franklin, state of, 192. 

Frav Marcos, 21 . 

Fredericksburg, in colonial times, 104; bat- 
tle of, 394. 

Free coinage, of gold and silver, 254, 475 ; of 

silver, 449, 467, 469, 472, 473, 475. 
Free-soil party, 334, 335, 339, 340, 846, 847 ; 

joins Republicans. 8.55. 
Freedmen, treatment after war, 429, 480; 
vole, 439-442, 445. 



23 



INDEX 



Freedmen's Bureau Bill, 430. 

Frelinghuysen, Theodore, 3'24. 

Fremont, John C, in California, 329-333 ; 
presidential nominee, 355, 425, 426 ; in 
Shenandoah valley, 392. 

French, possessions, 9; explorations, 60-65; 
relations with Indians, 70 ; relations with 
Eng-lish, 76-91 ; and Indian War, 86-91 ; 
abandon America, 90, 91 ; acknowledg-e 
our independence, 141, 142 ; repubhc es- 
tablished, 206 ; war with English, 206, 224- 
231 ; trouble with United States, 210-214 ; 
during Civil War, 449, 450 ; in Mexico, 450. 

French Du-ectorv, 210, 214. 

Frenchtown, battle of, 233, 234. 

Fries's Rebellion, 214. 

Frobisher, Sir Martin, 26. 

Frolic, 236, 237. 

Frontenac, Count, 77, 78. 

Frontier life, 26S-273. 

Frye, Joshua, 85. 

Fugitive-slave laws, 336, 339, 340, 341, 342, 
346, 353, 355. 

Fulton, Robert, 253. 

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 50. 

Funding of national debt, 201. 

Fusion tickets, 354, 



Gadsden, James, 334. 

Gadsden Purchase, 834. 

"Gag Rule," 314, 315. 

Gage, General Thomas, 126, 12T, 129. 

Gaines Mill, battle of, 394. 

Gallatin, Albert, 203, 251, 252. 

Gallipolis settled, 194. 

Gallissoni^re, Marquis de la, 82. 

Gama, Vasco da, 14. 

Garfield, James, president, 462, 463: death 
of, 463. 

Garrison, "William Lloyd, 313. 

Gates, General Horatio, 141, 144. 

Gates, Sir Thomas, 32. 

Genet, 206. 

Geneva awards, 450. 

George II. grants charter, 57. 

Georgia, settled, 57, 58; in colonial times, 
101, 103-105 ; annexed territory, 110 ; con- 
quered, 143 ; cedes land to Congress, 162 n., 
246; secedes, 378; Sherman's march 
through, 399, 402, 403 ; again in the Union, 
445. 

Germantown, battle of, 139. 

Gerry, Elbridge, 210, 295, 316 n. 2. 

Gerrymander, 295, 296. 

Gettysburg, battle of, 396, 397, 399. 

Gettysburg Address, Lincoln's, 397. 

Gila River, 334. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 27. 

Goffe, William, 52 n. 2. 

Gold, discovered in California, 337, 338; at 
Pikes Peak, 433 ; in Northwestern States, 
456; payments suspended, 421 ; sole legal 
tender, 44S, 449 ; standard, 485. 

Gold Democrats, 475. 

Gold reserve, 471, 472, 473. 

Goldsboro, 404. 



Goodyear, 373. 

Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 40, 47, 48. 

Gosnold, 29. 

Gourgues, 24. 

Government, colonial, 105-108 ; under Arti- 
cles of Confederation, 159 ; of territories, 
161, 162; control of raiboads, etc., 461, 
464, 469, 476. 

Grant, General U. S., in Civil War, 388-392, 
397-399, 402-406 ; relations with Johnson, 
430, 431 ; president, 439-448 ; third term 
proposed, 462. 

Gray, Captain, 220. 

Great American Desert, 329, 331, 332, 436, 
457. 

Great Britain, see English. 

Great Lakes explored, 60, 61. 

Great Salt Lake, 292, 332. 

Great WeHtern, 374. 

Greeley, Horace, 442, 444. 

Green Mountain Boys, 128, 243. 

Greenback party, 43S, 439, 447, 462, 465. 

Greenbacks, 420, 437, 438, 439, 445, 448, 471. 

Greene, Nalhanael, 146. 

Grenville, Prime Minister, 113. 

Groesbeck, W. S., 442. 

Groton massacre, 77. 

Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty of, 333. 

Guerriere, 230, 236. 

Guilford founded, 51-. 

Guilford Courthouse, battle of, 146. 

Guinther, 248. 

Guthrie, 458. 

H 

Hail, Columbia ! written, 211. 

Hale, John P., 346. 

Hale, Nathan, 149. 

iralf-Moon, 36. 

Halieck, General Henry, 388, 389, 390, 394. 

Hamet, 342. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 198. 

Hamlin, Hannibal, 363, 381. 

Hampton Roads, peace conference at, 405; 

Confederate cruiser sunk in, 413; Monitor 

and 3lerrimac, 415-417. 
Hancock, General Winfield, 462. 
Hand loom, 99. 
Hand mill, 272. 
Hand press, ISO. 
Hard cider campaign, 315. 316. 
Hard times of '73, 445, 446 ; of '93, 472, 473. 
Harnden, W. F., 369. 
Harpers Ferry, 359, 360. 
Harrisburg convention, 303. 
Harrison, Benjamin, president, 466-470. 
Harrison, AVilliam Henry, in War of 1812, 

233, 234, 235 ; delegate in Congress, 245 ; 

at Tippecanoe, 246; presidential candidate, 

311, 312, 315; elected, 316; death of, 316. 
Harrisons Landing. 394. 
Harrodsburg settled, 191. 
Hartford settled, 50. 
Hatteras Inlet, 417. 
Haverhill massacre, 77. 
Hawaiian annexation, 473, 474, 481. 
Hayes, Rutherford B., president, 447-449. 
Hayne, Governor, 303, 304. 
Helena founded, 436. 



24 



INDEX 



Hendricks, Thomas A., 447, 465. 

Hennepin, 21i>. 

Henry, Patrick, 114. 

Hessians, 182, 137. 

Highways of trade, 279-289, 

Hispaniola colonized, IS. 

Hobart, Garret A., 475. 

Hoe octuple press, ISO. 

Holly Springs, 391. 

Holy Alliance, 262-265. 

Home manufactures defended, 296, 297. 

Homestead Law, 363, 439. 

Hood, General J. B., 402, 404. 

Hooker, General, 396, 399. 

Hooker, Thomas, 50. 

Hopkinson, Joseph, 211. 

Hornet, 237. 

House of Burgesses, 33, 114. 

House of Commons, 115. 

House of Lords, 115. 

House of Kepresentatives, formed, 167 

elects president, 216, 297. 
Houston, Samuel, 321. 
Howe, Elias, 371 . 
Howe, General William, 130, 131, 185, 137- 

139, 140, 141. 
Hudson, Henry, 36, 37. 
Hudson Bay Company, 436. 
Hull's surrender, 233. 
Hunt, Walter, 289, 371. 
Huron Indians, 60, 68, 70. 
Hutchinson, Anne, 50. 



Iberville, 79. 

Idaho, a territory, 436 ; admitted, 456, 457 ; 
silver interests, 472, 475. 

Idaho City founded, 436. 

Illinois, a territory, 246 ; admitted, 274. 

Immigration, Chinese, see Chinese ; Euro- 
pean, 353, 354, 368, 439, 460, 409 ; Western, 
see Emigration. 

Impeachment of Johnson, 431. 

Impressment of sailors, 208, 225, 239. 

Income tax, 469, 476. 

Indented servants, 97, 98, 105. 

Independence Chamber, 166. 

Independence, Declaration of, 132, 134, 135. 

Independence Hall, 134, 135. 

Independent National party, 447. 

Independent Treasury law, 311, 312, 316. 

Independents or Mugwumps, 465. 

India rubber, 373. 

Indian country, 110, 150. 

Indiana, a territory, 245 ; admitted, 274. 

Indiana Register, 267. 

Indianapolis, population in 1840, 365. 

Indians, alliance with French, 60, 61, 62 ; 
traits of, 66-73; wars, 71-73; in French 
and Indian War, 77-79, 85-89 ; during Eev- 
olution, 142, 143; in 1790, 193; in 1812, 
234, 239 ; troubles with, 242, 243, 246, 260. 
261, 274; in Oregon, 322, 323; territory 
sold, 458. 

Industrial revolution, 266-277, 301, 302, 454- 
461. 

Inflation Bill, 445. 

Initiative and referendum, 492. 



Interest indents, 199. 

Internal improvements, political issue, 296, 

297, 303, 307. 
Internal revenue system, 419, 420. 
Interstate Commerce, 464, 465, 488. 
Intolerable Acts, 120, 121, 122. 
Inventions, 370-374, 459. 
" Invisible Empire," 440. 
Iowa, a territory, 366 ; admitted, 366. 
Ironclads, 414, 415. 

Iroquois Indians, 60, 68, 70, 72, 77, 143. ' 
Irwinsvillo, 407. 

Isabella, Queen, aids Columbus, 13. 
Island No. 10 captured, 389. 
Isthmian Canal, 487, 
luka, battle of, 391. 



Jackson, convention at, 354 ; battle of, 398. 

Jackson, Dr., 373, 374. 

Jackson, General Andrew, at New Orleans, 
239 ; defeats Indians, 261, 274 ; presidential 
nominee, 294 n. 1, 297 ; president, 301-311, 

Jackson, General T. J., 393. 

"Jackson men." 300, 301. 

Jalapa, battle of, 328. 

Jamaica discovered, 14 n. 1. 

James I., creates Virginia Company, 29, 30; 
annuls charter, 36. 

Jamestown settled, 30, 31, 104. 

Java captured, 237. 

Jay, John, treaty of Paris, 149 ; ambassador 
to London, 209, 

Jay Cooke and Co.'s failure, 445. 

Je'fferson, Thomas, writes Declaration of In- 
dependence, 132, 134 ; secretary of state, 
198; Republican leader, 203; vice president, 
210 ; opposes Alien and Sedition laws, 212 ; 
president, 215-229 ; favors political pro- 
scrii)tion, 294.' 

Jerry, 342. 

Jerseys, see New Jersey ; retreat across, 
135, 136. 

Johnson, Andrew, vice president, 425, 426; 
president, 427-431 ; amnesty policy, 437, 

Johnson, Herschel V., 361. 

Johnson, R. M., 311. 

Johnston, Gen. A. S., 390. 

Johnston, Gen. Joseph E., 393, 398, 399, 402, 
404, 406, 428. 

Joliet, Louis, 62. 

Jones, John Paul, 147-149. 

JuHan, George W., 346. 

Jumonville, 86, 



Kanawha state, 386. 

Kansas, struggle for, 346,347, 350, 851, 352 
slavery question in, 357, 358. 363; ad 
mitted, 3.58. 436 ; rapid growth, 456 
Farmers' .Alliance, 468. 

Kansas Citv, 332, 455. 

Kansas-Nebraska Law, 347, 352. 354, 356. 

Kaskaskia settled. 191. 

Kearny, Colonel Stephen, 329, 333. 

Kearsarge, 413. 



25 



INDEX 



Kendall, Amos, 314. 

Kentucky, settled, 191 ; resolutions, 212, 213 ; 

admitted, 243 ; Confederates in, 388, 390, 

391 ; slavery in, 429. 
Key, Francis S., writes Star-Spangled 

Banner. 238 n. 2. 
Kickapoo Indians, 62. 
King George's War, 80, 81. 
King Philip's War, 72. 
King William's War, 76-78. 
King, Eufus, 229, 259. 
King, William R., 346. 
Kings Mountain, battle of, 144, 145. 
Kirtland, 292. 

Knights of Labor, 460, 461, 468. 
Know-nothing party, 353, 354, 355, 363. 
Knox, General Henry, 198. 
Ku Klux Klan, 439, 440, 442. 



La Salle, Robert de, 62-65, 76, 79. 

Labor, in 1763, 95-98; in 1790, 182, 183; 

questions in 1860, 375, 376; after Civil 

War, 442-445, 460, 461, 462, 464, 465, 466 ; 

slave and free, 454 ; foreign and convict, 

461 ; parties, 464, 465. 468, 469, 470. 
Labor department established, 465. 
Laconia, 47. 

Lafayette, Marquis de, 138 n. 1. 
Lake Champlain, battle of, 236. 
Lake Erie, battle of, 234, 235. 
Lancaster, Congress at, 139. 
Land grants, free, 385; to railroads, 435; 

opposed, 439, 442, 443, 447, 461, 462. 
Land Mortgage scheme, 469. 
Lane, Joseph, 361. 
Lane, Ralph, 27. 
Larimer, General, 433. 
Laud, Archbishop, 47. 
Laudonniere, 23, 24. 
Lawrence, 235. 
Lawrence settled, 350, 351 n. 1. 
Lawrence, Amos A., 350. 
Lawrence, James, 237. 
Leavenworth, 329, 351 n. 1, 433, 434. 
Lecompton constitution, 357 n. 1, 358. 
Lee, Charles, 135, 136, 142. 
Lee, Richard Henry, 132. 
Lee, Robert E., campaigns in Civil War, 359, 

394, 396, 397, 399, 402, 404, 405 ; surrenders, 

405, 406. 
Lenni Lenape Indians, 72. 
Leopard, 227, 230. 
Letters of marque, 147. 
Lewis, Meriwether, 219, 331. 
Lewiston founded, 436. 
Lexington, 148. 
Lexington, battle of, 127, 128. 
Lexington, Ky., settled, 191. 
Liberal Republican party, 442. 
Liberator, 313. 
Liberty party, 315, 325, 335. 
Limestone settled, 194. 
Lincoln, Abraham, debates with Douglas, 

in Illinois senatorial contest, 358, 359 ; 

elected president, 363 ; during Civil War, 

878-418; inauguration speech, 381, 382; 



Longs 



Emancipation Proclamation, 394-396 ; Get- 
tysburg Address, 397 ; peace conference 
with Stephens, 405; reelected, 425, 426; 
assassinated, 426. 

Lincoln, General, 143, 144. 

Line of Demarcation, 15, 16. 

Little Belt, 230. 

Livingston, Robert R., 132. 

Loan-office certificates, 199. 

Log cabin campaign, 315, 316. 

Log cabins, 270-273. 

Log of the Mayflower, 44 n. 1, 45. 

Logan, John A., 465. 

Logstown, 84. 

London Company, 30, 31, 41. 

Long, Dr., 374. 

Long, Major, 331, 332 ; discovers 
Peak, 331. 

Long houses, Indian, 67. 

Long Parliament, 107. 

Lookout Mountain, battle of, 399. 

Lords of Trade, 86, 107. 

Lottery, Congress, 200. 

Louis XV. claims Ohio region, 82. 

Louisburg, built, 80 ; captured by English, 
81. 89 ; restored to French, 81. 

Louisiana, La galle in, 64 ; extent of, 76 ; 
French in, 79, 80 ; struggle for, 83-91 ; 
Spanish, 91 ; purchased, 218, 219, 274, 275; 
admitted, 246 ; boundary, 261, 262 ; secedes, 
878; reconstructs government, 428; re- 
admitted, 431. 

Louisville, settled, 194 ; labor congress at, 
443. 

Lovejoy, Elijah, 314. 

Lowell founded, 290. 

Lundy, Benjamin, 313. 

Lundys Lane, battle of, 235. 

Lyon, General, 388. 



McClellan, General George B., campaigns, 
388, 392-394 ; presidential nominee, 426. 

McCormick reaper, 371, 372. 

McDonough, Thomas, 236. 

McDowell, General Irwin, campaigns , 387, 
888, 892-394. 

McKinley, William, president, 475, 476-486, 

McKinley Tariff Act, 467, 473. 

Macedonian, 236. 

Macomb, General, 236. 

Macon Bill, 229. 

Madison, James, on the Constitution, 166 n. 1, 
167 ; Republican leader, 203 ; favors Vir- 
ginia Resolutions, 212 ; president, 229-257. 

Magellan, 17, 18. 

Mails, see Postal System. 

Maine, settled, 47, 48; part of Massachusetts 
Bay colony, 53 ; admitted, 274, 276, 277. 

Maine Law, 444. 

Manassas Junction, battle of, 387, 388. 

Manhattan Island, 87. 

Manila, battle of, 478. 

Manufactures, in colonial times, 98, 99, 102; 
about 1800, 248 ; infant, 249, 250, 296, 297 ; 
in slave states, 376; during Civil War, 
423 ; since Civil War, 454, 455. 



26 



INDEX 



March to the Sea, Sherman's, 399, 402, 403. 

Marcos, Fray, 21. 

Marietta settled, 193, 194. 

Marion, 144. 

Marquette, 62. 

Marshall, 337. 

Marshall, John, 210. 

Martin, Luther, 166 n. 1. 

Mary, Queen, grants Massachusetts charter, 

53. 
Maryland, colonized, 34-36 ; in colonial times, 

101, 103-105; slavery in, 429. 
Mason, Charles, 56 n. 1. 
Mason, James M., 412. 
Mason, John, 47, 48. 
Mason and Dixon's Line, 56 n. 1. 
Massachusetts, Bay Company, 46, 47 ; reli- 
gious intolerance in, 48, 49 ; Bay charter 
granted, 46, 53 ; in colonial times, 101, 102 ; 
opposes Stamp and Townshend Acts, 114, 
118 ; Bill, 120, 126, 155 ; cedes land to Con- 
gress, 158, 159. 
Matagorda Bay, 64. 
Matamoras, battle of, 327. 
Maximihan, 450. 
Mayflower, 41-44. 
Mayflower Comi)act, 43, 44. 
Mayflower Log, 44 n. 1, 45. 
Maysville settled, 194. 
Meade, General, 396, 397. 
Mechanical improvements, 289, 290, 459-461. 
.Mechanicsville, 394. 
Memphis captured, 389, 390. 
Mendoza, 21. 
Menendez, 24. 
Mercer, 149. 
3[errimac, 414-418. 
Mexico, becomes republic, 263, 264; wars, 

320-322, 326-328, 333 ; French in, 450. 
Miami Indians, 62. 

Michigan, a territory, 246 ; admitted, 366. 
Michilimackinac, trading post, 62. 
Middle Colonies, occupations, etc., 101-103. 
Milan Decree, 226, 229, 230. 
Milford founded, 51. 
Military lands, 160. 
Mill Springs, battle of, 388. 
Mills, R. Q., 466. 
Mills Tariflf Bill, 466. 
Milwaukee, population in 1840, 365. 
Minneapolis mills, 455. 
Minnesota, 415, 416. 
Minnesota, slavery in, 356; a territory, 366; 

admitted, 368. 
Mint established, 254. 
Minute men, 126, 127. 
Missionary Ridge, battle of, 399. 
Mississippi River, explored, 22, 61-64 ; 
French forts built on, 79, 80 ; right of 
navigation, 209, 218 ; slavery west of, 275- 
277 ; campaign in Civil War, 388-390, 397- 
399, 418. 
Mississippi, a territory, 245, 246 ; admitted, 
274; secedes, 378; convention in, 380; 
opposed to Reconstruction Act, 439, 440; 
again in the Union, 445. 
Missouri, admitted, 274, 276, 277; opposes 
Wilmot Proviso, 336 ; elects Kansas dele- 
gate, 351 ; slavery in, 429. 



356. 
150, 
239. 



259- 
456. 



131; 



Missouri Compromise, 276, 313, 347, 354, 
Missouri River, gold discovered on, 436. 
Mobile, in colonial times, 99; captured, 

418. 
Mobile Bay explored, 79, 80 ; British in, 
Mohawk Indians, 60, 68, 72. 
Mohegan Indians, 68, 71. 
Molino del Rey, battle of, 328. 
Money, see Currency, Gold, and Silver. 
Monitor, 415-417. 
Monmouth, battle of, 142. 
Monroe, James, Republican leader, ' 

treaty with England, 226 ; president, 

277, 294-297. 
Monroe Doctrine, 264, 450, 474. 
Montana, a territory, 436 ; admitted, 

457 ; silver interests, 472, 475. 
Montcalm, General, 88, 89, 90. 
Monterey, Cal,, Fremont at, 332. 
Monterey, Mexico, battle of, 327. 
Montezuma, 19. 

Montgomery, Confederate capital, 378, 31 
Montgomery, Richard, 131. 
Montreal, attacked, 77 ; captured, 90, 

attacked in 1813, 235. 
Moose Island captured, 237. 
Morgan, Daniel, 141, 146. 
Morgan, William, 300. 
Mormons, 292, 446. 
Morris, Robert, 149. 
Morris, Thomas, 324. 
Morristown, Washington at, 137. 
Morse, Samuel F. B., 289, 372. 
Morton, Dr., 373, 374. 
Morton, Levi P., 467. 
Moultrie, 149. 

Mount Desert Island settled, 60. 
Mount Pleasant settled, 267. 
Mount Vernon. Washington's home, 173 
Mugwumps, 4o5, 
Murfreesboro, battle of, 391. 
Murray, WilHam Vans, 214. 
Muskhogee Indians, 68. 
Mutiny Act, 117. 

N 



Nantucket Island captured, 237. 

Napoleon, consul of France, 214, 225 ; issues 
decrees, 225, 226 ; seizes American vessels, 
229, 230 ; loses power, 259. 

Napoleon, Louis, in Mexico. 450. 

Narragansett Indians, 68, 72. 

Narvaez, 20. 

Nashville, settled, 191 ; evacuated, 389 ; bat- 
tle of, 404. 

Nassau, blockade running, 411, 412. 

Natchez, in colonial times, 99 ; captured, 150, 
392 n. 1 ; claimed by Spaniards, 152. 

National Agricultural Wheel, 468. 

National Bank, First, 201, 202, 203, 246. 248; 
loses charter, 255; Second, 256, 805-307, 
303 ; proposed Third, 312, 316. 

National banks, 421. 

National Bimetallic League, 472. 

National debt, see Debt. 

National Democratic party, 475. 

National Labor Congress, 443. 

National Labor Reform party, 442, 443. 



27 



INDEX 



National notes, see Bonds. 

National party, 465, 475. 

National Pike, 252. 

National Prohibition Reform party, 444. 

National Republican party, see Republican. 

National Union party, 425, 426. 

Native American party, 353-355, 363. 

Naturalization law, 211, 353. 

Naumkeag settled, 46. 

Nauvoo built, 292. 

Naval warfare, in Revolution, 147-149 ; in 
French Wai, 213 ; in War of 1S12, 236-238 ; 
in Civil War, 410-418. 

Navigation Acts, 108. 

Navy department, 211, 213. 

Nebraska Bill, 346, 347. 

Nebraska, struggle for, 347 ; admitted, 436 ; 
rapid growth, 456. 

Neutrality, Proclamation of, 206, 207 ; policy, 
224. 

Nevada, acquired, 334 n. 1 ; territory and 
state, 435, 4^36 ; silver interests, 472, 475. 

New Albion, 27 n. 1. 

New Amsterdam, founded, 37 ; becomes 
New York, 55. 

New England, early settlements, 40-53 ; oc- 
cupations in colonies, 101, 102 ; English 
victories in, 237, 238. 

New England Emigrant Aid Society, 350. 

New France, extent of, 60 ; struggle for, 76- 
91. 

New Hampshire, settled, 47, 48 ; in colonial 
times, 101, 102 ; grants, 243. 

New Haven, colony, 51 ; in colonial times, 99 ; 
riot at, 116. 

New Jersey, settled, 55; in colonial times, 
101, 102, 103 ; plan for Constitution, 166, 167. 

New London, riot at, 116; burned, 146. 

New Mexico, Spanish explore, 21 • con- 
quered, 329 ; slavery in, 334, 341 ; bought 
from Texas, 339-341 ; admission of, 490. 

New Netherland, 37, 38, 39 ; becomes New 
York, 55. 

New Orleans, founded, 80 ; in colonial times, 
99 ; battle of, 238, 239 ; captured, 391, 392, 
418. 

" New Roof," 169, 170. 

New Sweden, 39. 

" New tenor," 200. 

New York (state). New Netherland be- 
comes, 55 ; in colonial times, 102, 103 ; 
English in, 139, 140, 142, 143 ; cedes land 
to Congress, 158. 

New York (city), convention, 77 ; in colonial 
times, 99 ; colonial congress at, 115 ; evacu- 
ated, 149, 150; national capital, 170-172, 
201 ; the metropolis, 284 ; in 1830, 290 ; 
labor congress at, 443. 

New York, Newfoundland, and London 
Telegraph Company, 374, 875. 

Newark, founded, 53 n. 1 ; riot at, 116. 

Newbern captured, 418. 

Newfoundland, granted to English, 79 ; fish- 
eries, 101, 450, 451. 

Newport, Ky., settled, 194. 

Newport, R.I., settled, 50 ; riot at, 116. 

Newspapers, in colonial times, 95, 96 ; In 1790, 
179, 180 ; about 1810, 248. 

Newtown settled, 47. 



Magara, 235. 

Niagara, founded, 80 ,, expedition against, 88. 

Nina, 11, 13. 

Nipmuck Indians, 72. 

Nominating conventions, 306, 307, 322. 

Non-importation, agreements, 117 ; Act, 226, 
227, 229. 

Non-intercourse Law, 228, 229. 

Norfolk evacuated, 418. 

North, Lord, 149. 

North American party, 354. 

North Carolina, settled, 54, 55 ; in colonial 
times, 101, 103-105; cedes land to Con- 
gress, 162, 192 ; secedes, 386 ; Sherman in, 
404 ; readmitted, 431. 

North Castle 136. 

North Dakota admitted, 456, 457. 

Northern attitude toward slavery, 336, 339, 
352, 376, 380, 381, 383 394, 395. 

Northern Pacific Railroad, 456. 

Northwest, exploration of, 219. 329, 331, 332, 
883 ; the new, 454-458. 

Northwest passage to India, 18. 

Northwest Territory, 161, 162 ; surrendered, 
233 , Indian troubles in, -242, 245 ; slavery 
question in, 274. 

Notes, LTnited States, see Bonds. 

Nova Scotia, part of Massachusetts Bay col- 
cny, 53; struggle for, 79-Sl. 

Nueces River, 326. 

Nullification doctrine, 213, 303, 304, 305. 



O 
Observer, 314. 
O'Conor, Charles, 442, 443. 
Oglethorpe, James, 57, 58. 
Ohio, settled, 192-194; admitted, 244, 245; 

currency i Ian, 438, 439. 
Ohio Land Company, 83, 161, 192, 193, 194. 
Ohio River, struggle for, 79-88 ; settlements 

on, 192-194. 
Oklahoma, 458. 
Old Demand notes, 420. 
Old Ironsides, 236. 
Olmsted, F. L., 442. 
Omnibus Bill, 841. 
Omnibuses, 291. 
Oneida Indians. 68. 
Onondaga Indians, 68, 78. 
Orders in Council of 1806 and 1807; 225, 226, 

229, 231,289. 
Ordinance, how passed, 159 ; of 1785, 160 ; of 

1787, 160-162, 197, 274. 
Oregon, settled, 219, 220, 368 ; joint occupa- 
tion of, 261, 322-325; boundaries of, 262; 

trail, 329, 331 ; a territory, 326, 356, 366 , 

slavery in, 356. 
Orleans Territory, 246. 
Ossawatomie settled, 351 n. 1. 
Oswego burned, 89. 
Otis. James, 149. 
Overland stage. 434. 
Owen, Robert, 291. 



Pacific Fur Company, 221 . 

Pacific Ocean, discovered, 17; named, 18. 



28 



INDEX 



Pacific railroads, r.Ol, 363, 434, 435. 

Pacitic 8tates settled, 366, 368. 

Pakenhain, General, 239. 

Palmer, John M., 475. 

Palmyra, Mormons at, 292. 

Palo Alto, battle of, 327. 

Panic, of 1837, 310, 311 ; of 1873, 445, 460 ; of 
1893, 472. 

Paper currency, 163, 164, 199, 253, 254, 437, 
445, 447. 

Parker, Joel, 443. 

Party platforms, see Platforms. 

Patent office, 370. 

Patroons, 38. 

Patterson, General, 388. 

Paulding, 144 n. 1. 

Pea Ridge, battle of, 389, 391. 

Peacock, 237. 

Pelican, 237. 

Pemberton, General, 398. 

Pendleton, George H., 426. 

Pendleton Civil Service Act, 464. 

Peninsular campaign, 392-394. 

Penn, William, settles New Jersey and Penn- 
sylvania, 55, 56; relations with Indians, 
71, 72. 

Pennsylvania, granted to Penn, 55, 56 ; in 
colonial times, 71, 72, 101, 102, 103 ; opposes 
Townshend Acts, 118; Declaration of Inde- 
pendence in, 13 , 135 ; Confederates in, 396. 

Pennsylvania Freeman, 314. 

Pennsylvania Gazette, 85, 116. 

Pennsylvania Jour?ial, 116. 

Pennsylvania Packet, 190. 

Pennsylvania route to West, 284, 285. 

Pensacola captured, 150, 261, 418. 

Pensions, 422, 467. 

People's party, 468, 469, 470, 476, 485. 

Pequot Indians, 68, 71. 

Perote, 328. 

Perry, Oliver Hazard, 234, 235. 

Perry ville, battle of, 391. 

Personal Liberty laws, 343, 352, 361, 380. 

" Pet banks," 307, 312. 

Petersburg, in colonial times, 104; Corn- 
wallis at, 146; besieged, 404; evacuated, 
406. 

Petroleum, 455. 

Philadelphia, founded, 56 ; in colonial times, 
99 ; First Continental Congress, 121 ; cap- 
tured, 137-139 ; Congress at, 139 ; evacu- 
ated. 142 ; constitutional convention at, 
165-169 ; in ISOO, 179 ; national capital, 201. 

Philanthropist, 314. 

Philippines, 478, 480-483. 

Phips, Sir William, 77. 

Phoinix, 252, 253. 

Photographic discoveries, 373, 459. 

Pickens, 144. 

Pickens, Governor, 378, 382, 

Pierce, Franklin, president, 346-355. 

Pike, Zebulon, 220, 221, 331. 

Pikes Peak, 220, 331, 433. 

Pilgrims, 41-46. 

Pinckney, C. C, minister to France, 210 ; 
Federalist candidate, 215, 229 ; treaty with 
England, 226. 

Pineda, 17. 

Pinta, 11, 13. 



Pinzon, 12, 14. 

Pitt, William, 89. 

Pittsburg, founded, 85; in 1790, 192; rebel- 
lion at, 204. 

Pittsburg Landing, battle of, 389, 390. 

Plains of Abraham, 89. 

Platforms, party, 203, 209, 210, 216, 2.^)9, 296, 
297, 300, 301, 306, 307, 314, 315, 324, 334, 
335, 346, 353-355, 360, 3()1, 363, 425, 426, 
439, 442-444, 446, 447, 462, 464, 465, 469, 
470, 475, 476. 

Platte country, 347. 

Plattsburg, battle of, 236. 

Plymouth, charter, 29, 30 ; Company, 30, 40, 
43, 44 ; settled, 44, 46 ; part of Massachu- 
setts Bay colony, 53. 

Pocahontas, 72, 73. 

Poictiers, 237. 

Political issues, see Platforms. 

Pohtical parties, beginning of, 197-205; see 
Federalists, Democrats, Republicans, etc. 

Polk, James K., presidential nominee, 322 ; 
president, 324-335. 

Polygamy, 446, 462, 464. 

Ponce de Leon, 17. 

Pony express, 434. 

Pope, General John, campaigns, 389, 394. 

Popham, Sir John, 40. 

Popular sovereignty, 339, 341, 347, 351, 355, 
358,359,360,361. 

Population, in 1790, 176-178, 190, 191; in 
1815, 241 ; in 1810, 246 ; in 1820, 268, 269, 
273; increase in, 290; of Oregon, 324; 
western immigrant, 353 ; between 1840 
and 1860, 365-367 ; in 1870, 436 ; of north- 
western states, 455-457 ; of Oklahoma, 458. 

Populists, see People's Party. 

Port Gibson, battle of, 398. 

Port Hudson, battle of, 391, 397, 398. 

Port Koyal, settled, 60 ; French stronghold, 
77 ; captured, 78; called Annapolis, 79. 

Port Royal, S. C, captured, 417. 

Portage Railroad, 286, 287. 

Porter, at Vicksburg, 398. 

Porto Rico, 14, 480, 481, 483. 

Portsmouth, settled, 50; in colonial times, 
99 ; navy yard, 414, 415. 

Portuguese in Brazil, 16. 

Postage stamps, 335. 369, 370. 491. 

Postal svstem, in colonial times, 94 ; in 1790, 
181, 182 ; in 1840, 369, 370 ; in 1860, 434. 

Powhatan Indians, 68, 72. 

Prairie schooners, 434. 

Prescott, Colonel, 129, 130. 

President, 230. 

Presidential election, method of, 168, 170, 
171, 216; proposed method of. 476. 

Presidential succes.sion, 463, 464. 

Presque Isle built, 83. 

Price, General, 391. 

Princeton, battle of, 137. 

I'rinting press, 94, 180, 248. 

Proclamation, line, 110. 153; of neutrality, 
262 ; Emancipation, 429. 

Progress, from 1790 to 1815, 241-265; from 
1840 to 1860, 365-377 ; since Civil War, 4.')4- 
461. 

Prohibition party, 444, 446, 462, 465, 467, 470, 
475, 485. 



29 



INDEX 



Proprietary colonies, 105, 106. 

Proscription, political, 294, 295. 

Proslavery movement, 813-315, 334, 347, 350, 

351, 357. 
Protection, South opposes, 303, 304; Clay 

favors, 307 ; political issue, 462. 
Providence, founded, 50; in colonial times, 

99; riot at, 116. 
Provincial colonies, 105, 106. 
Public domain, granted, 159, 160; additions 

to, 162, 218, 245, 246, 333, 334, 451 ; grants, 

see Land grants. 
Puebla, 328. 

Puerto Rico, see Porto Rico. 
Pulaski, 149. 

Punishment, forms of, 182, 183, 185, 294. ■ 
Puritans, 40; persecution of, 47; in New 

England, 46-53 ; become Separatists, 48. 
Putnam, 149. 



Quaker settlements, 55, 56. 

Quartering Act, 120, 122. 

Quebec, boundaries of, 110. 

Quebec, settled, 60 ; French stronghold, 77 ; 

attacked, 77, 78 ; surrendered, 89, 90. 
Quebec Act, 121. 
Queen Anne's War, 78, 79. 
Queenstown, battle of, 233. 
Quincy, Josiah, 119. 



R 

Radical Republicans, 425, 426. 

Railroads, early, 285-289, 366, 368, 369 ; West- 
ern, 434, 435; Northern Pacific, 456; in 
1887, 465; land grants to, 435, 439, 442. 
443,447,461,462. 

Ralegh, Sir Walter, 27-29. 

Randolph, John, 203. 

Recall, 492. 

" Receivers general " created, 312. 

Reconstruction Act, 430, 431. 

Reconstruction policy, 425-431, 437, 439. 440, 
461. 

Rederaptioners, 97, 98, 105. 

Referendum, 492. 

Refunding Act, 448. 

Reid, Whitelaw, 470. 

Reprisal, 148. 

Republicans, old party, 203, 206, 207, 209, 
210, 211, 215, 228, 229, 256, 259, 260, 295, 
296, 297, 300, 306; new party, 354, 357, 
363, 380. 381, 425, 426, 435, 439, 442, 446, 
447, 462-467, 470, 475, 485. 

Resaca de la Palma, battle of, 327. 

Restoration, EngHsh, 107. 

Resumption of Specie Paj'ment Act, 446, 
447, 471. 

Revenge, 148. 

Revolutionary War, 126-152. 

Rhode Island, settled, 50 ; charter, 52, 53 ; 
in colonial times, 101, 102. 

Ribault, John, 23, 24, 

Richmond, Confederate capital, 386 ; cam- 
paign against, 392-394 ; captured, 406, 426. 

Rio Grande, 20, 76, 221, 826, 327. 

Ripon, convention at, 354. 



Rittenhouse, David, 135. 

Roads, improvements, 251, 252 ; Western, 

284-288. 
Roanoke I., colonized, 27, 28 ; captured, 418. 
Robertson, James, 191. 
Robinson, John, 41. 
Rochester settled, 267. 
Rogers, Captain, 230. 
Rolfe, John, 73. 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 486. 
Rosecrans, General, campaigns, 391, 398, 399. 
Ross, General, 238. 
Roxbury settled, 47. 
Royal colonies, 105, 106. 
Rule of 1756, 207, 208. 
Rumsey, James, 252. 
Russell, John, 444. 
Russia, possessions, 9 ; claims on the Pacific, 

262 ; complies with Monroe Doctrine, 265 ; 

attitude in Civil War, 383, 449; Alaska 

purchased from, 451. 
Ryal, Captain, 80. 

S 

Sacketts Harbor, battle of, 236. 

Sacramento, 837. 

St. Augustine founded, 23, 24. 

St. Clair's defeat, 242. 

St. Croi.K River settlements, 60. 

St. John, John P., 465. 

St. Joseph captiired, 150. 

St. Lawrence River explored, 60. 

St. Leger, Colonel, 139-141. 

St. Louis, 99. 

St. Marks captured. 261. 

St. Marvs founded, 36. 

St. Paui, 456. 

Salem settled, 46. 

Salmon Falls massacre, 77. 

Saltillo, 827. 

Sampson, W. T., 478-480. 

Son Jacinto, 412. 

San Jacinto, battle of, 321. 

San Salvador, 18 n. 1. 

Santa Anna, 321, 827, 328. 

Santa Fe, 23 ; captured, 329 ; trail, 381. 

Santa Maria, 11, 13. 

Santiago, battles of, 47S-180. 

Saratoga, battle of, 141. 

Savannah, 374. 

Savannah, founded, 58; in colonial times, 
99 ; captured, 143, 402, 403, 426. 

Schenectady massacre, 77. 

Schley, W. S., 478-480. 

Schools, free, 368, 375, 

Schuyler, General, 139, 141, 

Scientific discoveries, 94. 95, 366, 459-461, 

Scioto Company, 161, 192, 194. 

Scott, General Winfield, in 1814, 235; in 
Mexican War, 327, 328 ; presidential nomi- 
nee, 346 ; in Civil War, 887. 

Sea to sea grants, 46, 121, 158, 159, 160, 162. 

Secession, of Southern States, 378-380: 
states refuse troops, 386, 887 ; reconstruc- 
tion plans, 427-481. 

Sedition Law, 211, 212, 216, 

Seminole Indians, 68, 260, 261, 458, 

Senate formed, 167. 



30 



INDEX 



Seneca Indians, 68, 14& 

Separatists. 40-46, 48. 

Serapis, 149. 

Seven Cities of Cibola, 20-22. 

Seven days' battles, 394. 

Seven Pines, battle of, 393. 

Sevier, John, 192. 

Sewall, Arthur, 475, 476. 

Seward, William H., 340, 347, 850, 405. 

Sewing machine invented, 371. 

Seymour, Horatio, 439. 

Shadrach, 342. 

Shannon, 237. 

Sharpsburg, battle of, 894. 

Shawnee Indians, 68. 

Shays, Daniel, 104. 

Shmandoah, 413, 414, 450. 

Shenandoah valley, war in, 392, 404, 405. 

Sheridan, General Phil., campaigns, 404, 405, 
450. 

Sherman, Roger, 132. 

Sherman, General W. T., campaigns, 399, 
402-406, 426. 

Sherman Act, 467, 468, 470 ; silver-purchase 
clause repealed, 472, 473. 

Shiloh, battle of, 389, 390. 

Ship Island, 392. 

Shirley, Governor, 80, 81. 

Silver, specie suspended, 420, 421 ; mines 
discovered, 435, 456 ; demonetized, 448 ; 
remonetized, 448, 449 ; certificates, 449 ; 
free coinage of, 467, 469 ; movement, 472, 
473, 475 ; party, 476. 

" Silver Grays," 355. 

Sioux Indians, 456. 

Sirius, 374. 

Six Nations, 143. 

Slav/e trade forbidden. 855. 

Slavery, established, 33, 34 ; in colonial times, 
97, 105 ; in territories, 162, 346-363 ; at 
time of Constitution, 167, 168; in 1790, 
185-187 ; affected by cotton industry, 195, 
196 ; in Kentucky, 24:3 ; in early states, 274, 
275 ; beyond M[ssissippi River, 275, 276 ; 
issue between Morth and South, 303 ; area 
expanded, 320-343 ; in Texas, 322 ; in New 
Mexico and California, 834, 335; in Kan- 
sas, 347, 350, 351 ; in 1857, 355, 356; in 
1860, 376 ; Civil War, 378-418 ; Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation, 394-396 ; during Civil 
War, 424 ; abolished in Confederate States, 
429 ; position of negroes after war, 439^42. 

SlideU, John, 412. 

Smith, Green Clay, 446. 

Smith, John, at Jamestown, 31, 32 ; explores 
New England coast, 40; among the Indi- 
ans, 72. 

Smith, Joseph, 292. 

Social conditions, in 1790, 175-196; about 
1890, 459-461. 

Socialist Labor party, 476, 485. 

Society for Encf^uragement of Domestic Man- 
ufactures, 250. 

Solis, 14. 

Somers, Sir George, 32. 

Sons of Liberty, 116. 

South American republics, 263, 264. 

South Carolina, settled, 54, 55 ; in colonial 
times, 101, 103-105; cedes land to Congress, 



162; Railroad, 286; Exposition, 303; fa- 
vors nullification, 303, 304; secedes, 378, 
394 ; Sherman in, 404; readmitted, 431. 

South Dakota, admitted, 456, 457; silver 
interests, 472, 475. 

South Pass, 832. 

Southern Colonies, occupations, etc., 101. 
108-105. 

Southern States, English in, 143-146; atti- 
tude toward slavery, 335, 336, 339, 356, 357 ; 
form Confederacy, 336 ; at end of 1860, 376 ; 
at beginning of war, 383 ; coast blockade, 
410-418 ; cost of war in, 422-424 ; recon- 
struction of, 425-431 ; troubles in, 439-442 ; 
the New South, 454, 455. 

Spanish, possessions, 9, 91; .settlcuients, etc., 
19-25; claims, 150-152 ; boundary line, 261, 
262 ; Florida bought from, 261 ; war with 
United States, 477-481. 

Spanish America, 264. 

Specie Circular, 309. 

Specie payments, 163, 255, 256, 811, 420, 421, 
437, 438, 445, 446. 

Speculation in 1886, 808-310. 

Speedwell, 41. 

Spottsylvania Courthouse, battle of, 404. 

Springfield, settled, 50 ; Republican state 
convention at, 358 n. 1 ; Lincoln's speech 
at, 395. 

Squatter sovereignty, see Popular Sov- 
ereignty. 

Squatters, 192, 350. 

Stagecoaches, 100, 188, 434. 

Stamford founded, 51. 

Stamp Act, 112-117, 121, 122. 

Stamp tax, 214. 

Standish, Miles, 41. 

Stanton, 431. 

Star of the West, 2,19. 

Star-Spangled Banner, 238 n. 2. 

Stark, Colonel John, 140. 

State banks, 255, 256, 305-307, 808, 810-812, 
421, 446. 

State debts, 203, 421 , 422. 

State department, 198. 

Staten Island evacuated, 150 n. 1. 

States, formed, 132, 155; thirteen original, 
155, 175-196; trade laws, 164, 165; powers 
of, 169; new constitutions in, 294; sov- 
ereignty of, 383 ; government in seceded, 
427^131. 

Steamboats, 190, 191, 252, 253, 280, 281, 366, 
368, 369, 374. 

Stephens, Alexander H., 378, 880, 405. 

Steuben, Baron, 141, 149. 

Stevens, John, 253, 285. 

Stevenson, Adlai E., 470. 

Stewart, G. T., 446. 

Stillwater, battle of, 141. 

Stockton, Commodore, 329, 333. 

"Stonewall " Jackson, 393. 

Stonington bombarded, 288. 

Stony Point captured, 142. 

Stowe, H. B., 343. 

Stuart, 295. 

Stuyvesant, Peter, 39. 

Subtreasurv plan, 469. 

Sugar Act.112. 

Sullivan, General, 136, 143, 



31 



INDEX 



Sumner, Charles, 347. 

Sumter, 412, 413. 

Sumter, 144. 

Sumter, Fort, 379, 382, 3S3, 418. 

Supreme Court, established, 169, 197, 198; 

gives Dred Scott decision, 356 ; on Wilson 

Bill, 473. 
Surplus revenue, in 1837, 309-312 ; in 1887, 

466. 
Surj>rise, 148. 
Sutter, 387. 

Sutter's Fort, 332, 337. 

Swedish, possessions, 9 ; settlements, 38, 39. 
Symmes, John C, 192, 



Taft, William H., 488-491. 

Taney, Roger B., 307 n. 4. 

Taritt", of 1789. 197 ; bills of 1824, etc., 303, 
304, 310 ; of 1861, 419, 420 ; for revenue 
only, 463 ; Mills Bill, 466, 467 ; McKinley 
Act, 467, 473 ; revision of 1896, 476. 

Tarleton, Commander, 146. 

Taxation, in colonies, 112-122 ; of 1861, 419, 
420 ; of bonds demanded, 439 ; of Chinese, 
443 ; a poUtical issue, 466. 

Taylor, General Zacharv, in Mexican War, 
326-329 ; president, 334-341 ; death of, 341. 

Tea tax. 119, 120. 

Tecumseh, 246. 

Telegraph, 372, 459. 

Temperance party, 444. 

Tender Acts, 164. 

Tennessee, settled, 191 ; part of public do- 
main, 192 ; admitted, 244 ; opposes Wilmot 
Proviso, 336 ; secedes, 386 ; x-econstructs 
government, 42S ; readmitted, 430, 431. 

Tenure of Office Act, 295, 430, 431 

Territory formed, 160-162. 

Terry, Eli, 248. 

Texas, becomes independent, 320-322 ; an- 
nexed to United States. 324-326; boun- 
daries of, 321, 389-.341 ; New Mexico 
pur-hased from, 339-341; admitted, 366; 
secedes, 878 ; opposed to Reconstruction 
Act, 440 ; again in the Union, 445. 

Thames River, battle of, 235. 

Thaver, Hon. Eh, 350 n. 3. 

Third-term tradition, 296. 

Thirteenth Amendment, proposed, 381 ; 
adopted, 429. 

Thomas, General George H., campaigns, 388, 
399, 402, 404. 

Thomas, General Lorenzo, 431. 

Thompson, Henry Adams, 462. 

Thurman, Allen G., 466. 

Ticket money, 256. 

Ticonderoga, 89, 90, 128, 139. 

Tilden, Samuel J., 447. 

Tippecanoe, battle of, 246. 

Toledo, population in 1840, 365. 

Tompkins, Daniel D., 259, 277. 

Tonty, Henri de, 64, 79. 

Topeka, 351 n. 1. 

Topeka free-state constitution, 352. 

Tories, 143 n. 1. 

Townshend Acts, 117. 



Trade, In colonial times, 101, 102, 103, 115 ; 
in original states, 163, 164, 165; convention 
•at AnnapoHs, 165; regulated by Congress, 
168, 169; with West Indies, 207; regula- 
tions of English and French, 208, 224-229 ; 
facilities for, 279-289. 

Trades unions, 460. 

Transportation Bill, 120. 

Travel, in 1790, 187-191 ; in 1810, 279-289. 

Treasury department established, 198. 

Treasury notes, 437, 468. 

Treaty, of Penn with Indians, 56; of 
Utrecht. 78, 79, 82 ; of Rvswick, 78, 82 ; of 
Aix-la-Chapelle, 81, 82; of Paris, 90, 149; 
with France, 142, 206, 211 ; Jay's, 209, 210, 
226 ; with Spain, 209, 249 ; of Ghent, 239 ; 
of Greenville, 243 ; of 1818, 261 ; of 1819, 
261, 262; Webster-Ashburton, 316, 317; 
with Mexico, 329, 333, 834: with Texas, 
320 ; of 1846, 326 ; with China, 444 ; of 
Washington. 450; with Hawaii, 473, 474; 
between Great Britain and Venezuela, 475. 

Treiit, 412. 

Trent, William, 85. 

Trent Aflfair, 412, 413. 

Trenton, battle of, 136, 137. 

Tripoli, war with, 236. 

Trusts, see Corporations. 

Truxtun, Captain Thomas, 213. 

Tuscarora Indians, 68, 148 n. 2. 

Twelfth Amendment, 216. 

Tyler, John, vice-presidential nominee, 312; 
president, 316-326. 



Uncle Tom's Cabin, 343. 

Underground Railroad, 352. 

Union Labor party, 467. 

Union Pacific Railroad, 434, 435. 

United Colonies of New England, 51, 52, 

United Labor partv, 467. 

United States, 236. 

United States Bank, see National Bank. 

United States bonds, see Bonds, 

Usselinx, William, 38. 

Utah, Mormons in, 292, 446; acquired, 
334 n. 1 ; slavery question in, 340, 841 ; ad- 
mitted, 457 n. 1 ; silver interests, 472, 475. 



Vaca, Cabeza de, 20. 

Vail, Alfred, 372. 

Valley Forge, 139, 141. 

Van Buren, Martin, birth, 294 n. 1 ; vice- 
presidential nominee, 306; president, 
311-;316 ; presidential nominee, L35 ; favors 
10 hours system, 375. 

Van Dorn, General, 391, 

Van Rensselaer's expedition, 233. 

Van Wart, 144 n. 1. 

Venezuela boundary question, 474, 475. 

Vengeance, 218. 

Vera Cruz, battle of, 32S. 

Vermont admitted, 228 n. 2, 243 ; 
Personal Liberty Law, 343. 



32 



INDEX 



Vespucci, or Vespucius, Amerigo, 14, 16. 

Vevay settled, 267. 

Vice-admiralty courts, 112, 115, 122. 

Vice president, manner of electing, 171, 216. 

Vicksburg captured, 391, 397, 398. 

Vincennes settled, 99, 191. 

Virginia, 414-418. 

Virginia, named, 27 ; settled, 27-33 ; charters, 
29, 30, 32, 33 ; a royal colony, 34; defends 
Ohio valley, 85; 'in colonial times, 101, 
103-105; opposes Stamp Act, 114; cedes 
land to Congress, 158, 159; Reserve, 160: 
plan of Constitution, 166, 167 ; resolutions 
of 1798, 212, 213 ; resolutions of 1849, 336 ; 
Brown's raid in, 359 ; secedes, 386 ; coast 
blockade, 411 ; opposes reconstruction 
policy, 439, 440 ; again in the Union, 445. 

Virginia City, Mont., founded, 4136. 

Virginia City, Nev., founded, 435. 

Virginia companies, 29, 30. 

Volunteers during Civil War, 386, 387, 422. 



W 



Wabash River, Indians on, 242. 

Wachusett, 413. 

Wages, in 1790. 183; in 1860, 3T5, 376: in 
1873, 445 ; in 1880, 460. 

Walla Walla, 832. " 

Wampanoag Indians, 72. 

War department, 198. 

Ward, Ensign, 85, 86. 

Warren, 149. 

Wars, Indian, 71-73 ; colonial, 76-87; French 
and Indian, 86-91; Revolution. 126-152; 
with France, 213; with Tripoli, 236; war 
for commercial independence (War of 1812), 
232-239; Mexican, 326-328, 333; Civil, 378- 
418 ; Spanish, 477, 478. 

Washington, George, in French and Indian 
War, 83-89 ; commander in chief, 129 ; in 
Revolution, 129-150; president constitu- 
tional convention, 169 ; president, 171, 172, 
197-209 ; social conditions at time of, 175-^ 
196. 

Washington, national capital, 201, 214, 215; 
burned, 238, 255; Confederates near, 394, 
404. 

Washington, slavery question in, 356 ; a ter- 
ritory, 368 ; settled, 368 ; boundary of, 450 ; 
admitted, 457 n. 1. 

Wa^p, 236, 237. 

Watauga Creek settlements, 191, 192. 

Waterloo settled, 267. 

Watertown settled, 47. 

Watlings Island, 132. 

Watson, Thomas E., 478. 

Wayne, Anthony, at Stony Point, 142; in 
Indian warfare, 242, 243. 

Weaver, James B., 462, 469. 

Webster, Daniel, birth, 294 n. 1 ; opposes 
nullification doctrine, 305; secretary of 
state, 316, 317, 841 ; si)eech on Comprouiise 
Bill, 340 ; death of, 352, n. 1. 

Webster-Ashburton treaty, 316, 317 

V/eitzel, General, 406. 

Wells, Dr., 374. 

West Indies discovered, 13. 



West Point, Arnold at, 144. 

West Virginia, admitted, 386 ; slavery in, 429. 

Western movement, 244-246, 266-277 433- 

436. 
Western Reserve of Connecticut, 160. 
Western Union Telegraith Company. 372. 

460. "' 

Wethersfield settled, 50. 
U'huUey, Edward, 52 n. 2. 
Wheeler, WiUiam A., 447. 
WheeHng settled, 198. 
Whig party, 311, 312, 315, 316, 317, 324, 335, 

346, 352, '.Mi?.. 355. 363. 
Whisky Rebellion, 203, 204. 
White Housf Landing, battle of, 393. 
White Plains, battle of, 135. 
White, John, 28. 
White, John, 46. 
Whitman, Marcus, 331. 
Whitnev, Kli, 195, 248. 
Wildcat state banks, 308. 
Wilderness canij)aign, 404, 405, 406. 
Wilkes, Captain, 412. 

William, King, grants Massachusetts char- 
ter, 53. 
Williams, 144 n. 1. 
Williams, Roger, 49, 50. 
Williamsburg, in colonial times, 99, 104; 

cai)tured, 393. 
Wilmington, Del., Washington at, 188. 
Wilmington, N. C, British at, 146 ; captured. 

418. 
Wilmot, David, 329. 
Wilmot Proviso, 829, 836. 
Wilson, Henry, 442, 444. 
Wilson, William L., 473. 
Wilson Bill, 473. 
Winchester, General, 283. 
Winchester, battle of, 404, 405. 
Winthrop, John, 47. 
Wirt, WiUiam, 806. 
Wisconsin territorv and state, 366. 
Wolfe, General Jaines, 89, 90. 
Woman suffrage, 443, 447, 476, 492. 
Workingman, see Labor. 
Wyeth, Nathaniel J., 331. 
Wyoming massacre, 143. 
Wyoming, acquired, 334 n. 1 ; a territory, 

436 ; admitted, 456, 457 ; silver interests, 

472. 



X 



X, Y, Z mission," 210. 



Yates, 166 n. 1. 

York, Canada, burned, 235. 

York, Me., massacre, 77. 

York, Pa., Congress at, 139. 

York, Duke of, 55. 

Yorktown, surrendered, 146 ; captured, 

Young, Brigham, 292. 



Zuni pueblos, 21. 



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